Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-63

US: Simon & Schuster, 1989. Paperback. Good. In Parting the Waters, the first volume of his essential America in the Kin g Years series, Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch gives a "compelling...m asterfully told" (The Wall Street Journal) account of Martin Luther King's early years and rise to greatness. Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American Civil Rights M ovement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations. Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of Ame rica, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled si nce the Civil War. Taylor Branch provides an unsurpassed portrait of King's rise to greatness and illuminates the stunning courage and private conflict, the deals, maneu vers, betrayals, and rivalries that determined history behind closed doors, at boycotts and sit-ins, on bloody freedom rides, and through siege and mu rder. Epic in scope and impact, Branch's chronicle definitively captures one of t he nation's most crucial passages. Editorial Reviews.