King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig
Summary
Jonathan Eig traces the full life of Martin Luther King Jr., from his childhood in Atlanta and his rise as a young pastor to his leadership of the civil rights movement and his assassination in 1968. Drawing on newly released FBI files, audio recordings, and interviews, the book presents King as a complicated human being rather than a sanitized icon, examining his doubts, his courage, and the personal costs of his activism. It matters because it offers the first major narrative biography of King in decades and recovers the radical, fully human figure behind the holiday and the monuments.
Historical Context & Significance
Published in 2023, the book was the first comprehensive biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in more than thirty years and drew on government documents that had only recently become available.