Bearing the Cross

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

By: David J. Garrow

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 34 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive book ever written about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. David J. Garrow had unrestricted access to Martin Luther King's personal papers, to thousands of pages of newly released FBI documents and more than 700 interviews with King's closest friends and enemies.

Garrow traces King's transformation from the young pastor of a modest church into the foremost spokesperson of the civil rights movement. The book's unifying theme is King's growing awareness of the symbolic meaning of the cross as his sense of mission deepened and matured into acceptance of a life that would end by demanding the ultimate sacrifice. This is a powerful portrait of a man at the epicenter of one of the most dramatic periods in our history.

©1986 David J. Garrow (P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Provocative...a complex and convincing portrait." (Time)
"Brilliant...one of the most valuable sources of contemporary history." (The Sunday Boston Globe)
"Mr. Garrow has provided the fundament of fact on which future King biographies must rest....Likely to remain for a long time the most informative life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the most thorough study of the civil rights movement." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Absorbing...Garrow aimed simply to write the definitive chronicle of King's life during the period of his public eminence, and he has performed the task with skill and integrity." (Times Literary Supplement)

Amazing book!

This book does a great job of telling the story of a great man. It shows that he wasn’t great because of some innate quality but that he answered the call when it came his way. He struggled like any man but he did his best. This book makes that a more compelling story than the usual watered down version. Every fan of Dr. King should read this book.

Essential Reading, So-So Narration

Essential book about MLK, the SCLC, and the Civil Rights Movement. Narrator was a bit robotic but I've heard worse

great but long

First, I would say the author clearly has some incredible writing skills. The way he draws the readers in in the first few chapters is masterful. I thought that was some of the most gripping writing I have read in a long while. Likewise the end of the moving is incredibly moving given the foreboading and irony that permeates what you know will happen. There are sections in the middle that are likewise masterfully written.
I have listened to several audiobooks that were much longer than this one, but there are sections in the middle where you can find yourself zoning out for 10 min and feeling like you did not miss very much. The book is a day by day, week by week, sometimes feels like minute by minute account of MLK's life from 1955 to 1968, and it is completely linear, chronologic review of his life. Sometimes it just feels like it is one talk, one march, one act of civil disobedience after anohter. Again most of it is great, but maybe there were times when your attention is not rivetted, and the author clearly has the capability to draw you in tightly in other parts.
The narration was very good except the reader takes pauses, sometimes in mid sentence, and a few times i kept thinking my ipod broke, but then he just starts right back up again. pretty weird.
Overall very very good, definitley worth reading, but a little dry at times in the middle.

The Life and Legacy of MLK

David J. Garrow’s biography of Martin Luther King Jr. is largely considered the foundational work available on the man. That reputation is well earned. To describe Garrow’s book as detailed would be a severe understatement; this history contains near everything you could ever want to know about Dr. King. Garrow succeeds in showing both King’s heroic virtues and, more importantly, his very human flaws. Garrow doesn’t try to make King superhuman, because that manufactured image goes against what MLK really stood for. King drew on both his keenly honed intellect and a deep well spiritual faith to fight against injustice, both domestically and abroad, and King wanted us to do the same. On a personal note, while King has always been a hero to me, seeing him portrayed more as a man than as a symbol only makes me admire him more.

As for the narration it is good, albeit a bit dry. Also, it can be frustrating that Garrow has a tendency to dump a lot of information on the reader without much style or analysis. That said, it’s hard to say too much detail in a historical biography is a bad thing. If you’re still reading this review, what are you waiting for? Highly recommended!

Intriguing

I truly enjoyed it. I think it got a little bogged down in the philosophy of the movement but overall a good job.

Amazing Insight of Dr. King and the Other Heroes

If accurate, this was an amazing book with insight unparalleled of the movement and its humanity in action!

The Best Bio on MLK Jr by 100%

The Good, The Bad and Fully Disclosure of Dr Kings Life. Very Well Written and excellent narration

Lacked appeal

Often slow and boring. Probably better read. The narrative was good despite being lukewarm.

Great Book!!

One of the most comprehensive books I’ve ever listened too, something’s came off as surprising about King especially behind the scenes of the movement. Don’t wanna give much away because it was that good but I will say King had a very complicated and mysterious family life didn’t realize how much was going on behind closed doors. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading the life of Dr. King much credit to Mr. David Garrow for his research this book is well written.

Human Rights, not Civil Rights World Leader

Born in 1965 to a middle class white family on the West coast, I only taught that Dr. MLK was a “civil rights” leader, until i listened to this book. It is a sad statement about both the black and white communities continue to perpetuate this lie; Dr. King was a “human rights” leader. What I learned from this fabulous book was that for a decade King’s SCLC organization’s efforts, although reported at the national and global level, were almost all focused at a municipal level. It was not until Dr. King threatened the US Government, that his demise was sealed. It is a sad coincidence that three of the most powerful men, MLK, JFK and RFK, that COULD have ended war and brought peace to America’s conscience were all assassinated, to stop that from happening. I’m sure if Dr. King had lived he would have shed a tear when Obama was elected; then wept bitterly just a few weeks later as he organized protests against the additional troops Obama sent to Afghanistan against his progressive campaign promises.