Powerful, engaging, and enlightening.
The parallel lives and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy turn and intersect in this innovative double biography.
Murphy uses extensive primary sources to create intimate portraits—drawing on their words and thoughts when they were not in the public eye, experiences of their co-workers and friends, and the feelings of common people who heard them speak. In Part 1, April 1968, Martin prepares to march in Memphis with the Poor People’s Campaign, work that Bobby encouraged; Bobby has decided to run for president, a move that Martin privately condoned. Martin is shot and killed; Bobby must announce the news at a campaign rally in a black neighborhood. Part 2 moves back in to recount their different family histories, the questions they struggled with as leaders, the pressure they were under and the pressure they applied to achieve their goals, their respective growth as leaders in an increasingly divided nation, the moments before their assassinations, and the nation’s reactions. The presentation is objective yet flattering (the common people and co-workers consulted loved these men). The text ends with a call to action, comparing the 1960s to our current political situation. This book brings to life the high stakes involved in principled leadership and highlights the fact that effective leaders do not act in a vacuum but take on challenges because they are passionate about their causes.
Powerful, engaging, and enlightening. (author’s note, timeline, places to visit, notes, bibliography) (Biography. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64160-010-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Intrepid explorer Lourie tackles the “Father of Waters,” the Mighty Mississippi, traveling by canoe, bicycle, foot, and car, 2,340 miles from the headwaters of the great river at the Canadian border to the river’s end in the Gulf of Mexico. As with his other “river titles” (Rio Grande, 1999, etc.), he intertwines history, quotes, and period photographs, interviews with people living on and around the river, personal observations, and contemporary photographs of his journey. He touches on the Native Americans—who still harvest wild rice on the Mississippi, and named the river—loggers, steamboats, Civil War battles, and sunken treasure. He stops to talk with a contemporary barge pilot, who tows jumbo-sized tank barges, or 30 barges carrying 45,000 tons of goods up and down and comments: “You think ‘river river river’ night and day for weeks on end.” Lourie describes the working waterway of locks and barges, oil refineries and diesel engines, and the more tranquil areas with heron and alligators, and cypress swamps. A personal travelogue, historical geography, and welcome introduction to the majestic river, past and present. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-56397-756-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If Freedman wrote the history textbooks, we would have many more historians. Beginning with an engrossing description of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, he brings the reader the lives of the American colonists and the events leading up to the break with England. The narrative approach to history reads like a good story, yet Freedman tucks in the data that give depth to it. The inclusion of all the people who lived during those times and the roles they played, whether small or large are acknowledged with dignity. The story moves backwards from the Boston Tea Party to the beginning of the European settlement of what they called the New World, and then proceeds chronologically to the signing of the Declaration. “Your Rights and Mine” traces the influence of the document from its inception to the present ending with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The full text of the Declaration and a reproduction of the original are included. A chronology of events and an index are helpful to the young researcher. Another interesting feature is “Visiting the Declaration of Independence.” It contains a short review of what happened to the document in the years after it was written, a useful Web site, and a description of how it is displayed and protected today at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. Illustrations from the period add interest and detail. An excellent addition to the American history collection and an engrossing read. (Nonfiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1448-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
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