Keeps the Fire Aflame...Pillared Story of the Shaping of America

books:


	• Pillar of Fire : America in the King Years 1963-65 (America in the King Years) Taylor Branch Simon & Schuster, 1999 - 768 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Branch's Pillar of Fire

This is an intense book filled with many facts. Often far too many facts to process well and comprehend the story. That may seem a bit much but the purpose of Branch's book seems to be to write down as much as possible. Still, the events are exciting and not to be missed. The time period begins with an assassination of a president and ends with the assassination of a......what was Malcolm X anyway? A very interesting yet troubling man? I have yet to figure out and may never. I do know he was there.

The Angle of Moment

With 30 other reviews for this book (so far), it would seem that everything that needs to be said about this book has been said already. And I would second the praise for the book. It is vital reading for any student of American history. It is well written; indeed, I felt the writing style was more literary and more suspenseful than PTW. The allocation of styles is sensible; the straightforward, conservative narrative style of PTW is helpful for readers new to the subject, while POF follows with a somewhat more daring style of narration, for readers now familiar with the main characters.

What I believe other reviews have not really done is assess the book's treatment of the subject matter, or what alternative choices Mr. Branch could have made. Readers would be advised to note this is essentially a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr, and not so much an account of the civil rights movement. Not only that, unlike Garrow's *Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Perennial Classics)*, it addresses MLK as a thinker and philosopher of nonviolence[*], not as a political actor. Every element in Branch's books is marshaled to illustrate or test King's doctrine of nonviolence. While Branch possibly had other motives, a lot of the criticisms of his book can be explained away with this hypothesis.

(Examples of criticism include the meager attention to other characters in the Civil Rights Movement, brief references to the women, or lack of any sort of radical analysis. While Branch has responded to criticism of his male-centric account of this period, I will merely add that women--white or black--seldom posed a challenge to nonviolence. Likewise, Branch does not attempt to assess the forces driving racism itself, and what caused those forces suddenly to weaken or capitulate. This is about a philosophical approach.)

The rival approach to King's philosophy of nonviolence, during this period, was a posture of confrontation (adopted by the Nation of Islam and by King's adversaries in Florida and Mississippi). "Posturing" is an intermediate stance between violence and nonviolence, and it was the choice of a surprising number of white adversaries still hoping to bluff their way out of a violent confrontation. At this time, the appeal to "states rights" had proven to be a legalistic shell game of evasion, and one doomed to end badly for the segregationists. At the same time, the Nation of Islam was adopting militant rhetoric it could not seriously dream of putting into practice. By adopting a discipline of confrontation and central control, the NOI was able to create an entirely new conception of the African American in the minds of white Americans, as a potentially fierce and truculent contender in America's endless civic brawls.

In both cases, the strategy of posturing violence was to collapse in internal struggles. The whites who sought to discourage King's soul power in Mississippi pushed the envelope of posturing--of intimidation and belligerent confrontation--to the point that the ruling white caste began to lose face and succumbed to the enforcer "rednecks." The NOI split along personality lines, with Malcolm X being driven from the inner circle of Elijah Muhammad, then forming a charismatic dissenting ummah of non-sectarian Muslims, and exposing the deep contradictions in the NOI's radical pretensions.

While the NOI plays a smaller role in the book than I have implied, it is fitting that the book begins with a NOI confrontation with the police, and ends with a deadly confrontation between NOI and its most famous ex-member, Malcolm X. The ideal of establishing Black Pride through a personality cult was to prove an unmitigated disaster for the NOI, while the ideal of defeating nonviolent action through constant state harassment was to severely wound the South's ruling class.
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[*] In my review of *At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (America in the King Years)* I address King's doctrine of "nonviolence" in more detail; but "nonviolence" is a very inadequate term to describe the concept.

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Keeps the Fire Aflame...Pillared Story of the Shaping of America

Taylor Branch has certainly done better work with his first Pulitzer Prize winning Civil Rights movement work, "Parting the Waters,' but that doesn't mean you should be brushing aside this good history writing in "Pillar of Fire." There's a quote out there...that I can't seem to find right now...that says something to the effect of, "If we don't learn from history, we will find ourselves repeating mistakes already made." In the realm of social justice and American Civil Rights history there is no finer capturing of our society's mistakes and the heroic struggle undertaken by civil rights movement leaders than the history written by Taylor Branch on the subject. The entire trilogy should be required reading for all liberal arts majors (all other under grad majors for that matter) as an education in the important history that shaped the America we know today.

"Pillar of Fire," captures just three years of the Civil Rights movement from 1963-1965, but they were chock-filled with pivital and formative events. Highlights from Branch's book are the FBI-wrangling led by J. Edgar Hoover, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, assassinations of Malcom X and Medgar Evars, the mission creep of Vietnam, and the beginnings of tying in the civil rights movement protest to a larger anti-war protest movement. My criticism, though minor may it be, of "Pillar of Fire," is that whereas Branch's first work, "Parting the Waters," read like a deftly crafted geniusly written page turner of a suspense novel, "Pillar of Fire," comes across more like a traditional history book. Branch's writing genius lies in his ability to bring together seemingly disparate events while mixing in elements of pop culture and everyday life to give you a good feel for the "sign of the times," at that time. Where Branch was able to tie in the events in America pre-1965 and do it with panache in "Parting the Waters," his efforts in "Pillar of Fire," aren't so focused. Call it a sophomore slump if you will, but "Pillar of Fire," got a little too bogged down in White House and Capital Hill wankerings and didn't focus on the immediacy of the drama of what was happening on the street down South during those years. Don't let this deter you from reading "Pillar of Fire," though...its just a minor Branch-ian misstep.

Where Branch's work really shines is his recounting of the odd and gangster and cult-like machinations of the Nation of Islam. He also captures the juxtaposition of Malcom X's approach to Civil Rights versus MLK's non-violent warfare approach quite nicely. In hindsight it seems MLK's method of bringing about social justice change through sacrifice and love proved more lasting and effective. Also of interest is J. Edgar Hoover's odd fixation on MLK's personal life and using that to try to bring down the man and the movement. If people are concerned about the "Patriot Act," today infringing on personal rights and intelligence oversight...just read what America was like in the 60's with the Hoover-led FBI getting into everybody's business.

All in all, Branch's "Pillar of Fire," is a high quality read and well-written piece of history...a history that is integral to the fabric of America today. The Civil Rights movement was nothing short of a revolutionary and/or civil war in America and the re-telling of this history reveals it as such. Run, don't walk, to get a hold of all of Branch's books from Amazon to get up to speed on all things Civil Rights movement.
--MMW

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Branch's Trilogy

Volume one of Branch's biography of King, though interesting most of the time, suffers from Branch's sometime tortuous syntax and lack of focus, it seems. _Parting the Waters_, overall, was excellent, but I only wish that it flowed always when it only flowed some of the time.

Beginning now to read _Pillar of Fire_, volume two of the trilogy, I am again struck with Branch's convoluted and twised syntax, which smooths itself out at some point only to become twisted once more. Also, volume two seems, at the start, to be extremely disjointed, hopping from place to place with no cohesive story. Most of the first 100 pages of _Pillar of Fire_ is a repeat of information already convered in volume one of the Trilogy.

I expected volume two to begin right off with how the new Johnson Administration was going to approach the Civil Right's Movement, and what further things good ol' Hoover was going to work up. But so far-- after 100 pages-- the book still sits, apparently, in the Kennedy Administration, with very little referencing of King, the Kennedy Administration, or Hoover. Instead, volume two simply rehashes, in sometime tortuous syntax, old information.

Nevertheless, I will continue to read volume two. The trilogy is very good, for the most part. Style is a thing the reader adapts to, after a few hours of reading. The only problem with Branch is that though I have accustomed myself to Branch's stylitical quirks, it seems I am forever going in and out of catching his tempo and flow.

Alan Bernardo

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Impossible not to be a letdown

Any follow up to Parting the Waters is destined to be anticlimatic. Concedingly, there are a few drawbacks to Pillar of Fire. Nonetheless, this is another classic work from Branch.

General Remarks:

1. About half of the first section of the book is a summary about the "tides" leading to the Birmingham campaign in 1963. Accordingly, it has a text book feel and it quite bland, especially if you just finished reading Parting the Waters. However, the summary will be beneficial if you need a memory jogger to prepare for the history to continue.

2. Fortunately, mixed in with the summary is fresh narrative ranging from "Muslims in Los Angeles" to "LBJ in St. Augustine"

3. The second section, "Freedom Summer," is a return to vintage Branch. The author's presentation of history is captivating. Branch somehow smoothly intertwines all perspectives and every angle in his depiction of freedom summer, zooming out to global standpoints and in for microscopic analyses of King's conscience.

4. Like Parting the Waters, Pillar is rife with suspense, plot turns, romance, treachery, violence, sex, and political intrigue. Even if this were a novel its literary value would merit reading it. But this stuff is true, amazingly, and contains a ton of documentation to prove it.

5. Better yet, this book is philosophically stimulating, inspirational, educational, and utterly poignant.

6. Ironically, this book should have been much longer. Character development could stand to be more thorough in places. Accordingly, some defining episodes (especially St. Augustine) seem rushed.

Final comment: Branch provides an in depth, intimate portrait of the movement and its principal actors. Pillar of Fire is a rich mix of fascinating biography and political intrigue, captured within a multi-dimensional approach to history (intellectual, social, cultural, political, religious), and held together with a concentration on Martin Luther King.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

In Pillar of Fire, the second volume of his America in the King Years trilogy, Taylor Branch portrays the civil rights era at its zenith. The first volume, Parting the Waters, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. It is a monumental chronicle of a movement that stirred from Southern black churches to challenge the national conscience during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. In this masterly continuation of the narrative, Branch recounts the climactic struggles as they commanded the national and international stage.

Pillar of Fire covers the far-flung upheavals of the years 1963 to 1965 -- Dallas, St. Augustine, Mississippi Freedom Summer, LBJ's Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Vietnam, Selma. And it provides a frank, revealing portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- haunted by blackmail, factionalism, and hatred while he tried to hold the nonviolent movement together as a dramatic force in history. Allies, rivals, and opponents addressed racial issues that went deeper than fair treatment at bus stops or lunch counters. Participants on all sides stretched themselves and their country to the breaking point over the meaning of simple words: dignity, equal votes, equal souls.

Branch's gallery of historic characters also includes:

Malcolm X, who challenged King's vision of nonviolent integration and lived under threat of death from the Nation of Islam. Lyndon Johnson, who believed racial conflict was destroying his political base in the South and threatening his dream to end poverty. J. Edgar Hoover, under whose direction the FBI, with Attorney General Robert Kennedy's approval, spied on King with wiretaps and bugs, and yet solved the most heinous racial crimes of the era. Diane Nash, the passionate leader behind sit-ins and Freedom Rides, whose determination shaped the Selma voting rights movement. Abraham Heschel, the Hasidic theologian who bonded with King in devotion to the Hebrew prophets. Robert Moses, the Mississippi SNCC leader who finally came undone over the human suffering caused by his Freedom Summer. Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who commanded a powerful voice for the unlettered.

Pillar of Fire takes readers inside the dramas that shook every American institution, from the local pulpit to the Presidency. We disappear with courageous young people into Mississippi's feudal Parchman Penitentiary. We absorb the shock of a single Presidential election in 1964 that revolutionized the structure of partisan politics. We follow Northern rabbis summoned by King, and Mary Peabody, mother of the governor of Massachusetts, into the segregated jails of St. Augustine, Florida. We witness the Shakespearean conflicts between Lyndon Johnson and King and Hoover and Robert Kennedy.

Branch brings to bear fifteen years of research -- archival investigation; nearly two thousand interviews: new primary sources, from FBI wiretaps to White House telephone recordings -- in a seminal work of history. Pillar of Fire captures the intensity of the legendary King years, when the movement broke down walls between races, regions, sexes, and religions, and between America and the larger world. Its struggle to rescue and redeem, its victories and defeats, its failings and sacrifices gave rise to opposing tides that still dominate the national debate about justice and democratic government. The story of this movement is an incandescent chapter in America's distinctive quest for freedom.

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