Civil Rights and the Idea of Freedom [Hardcover]

Focusing attention on the political ideas that were influential as well as those that were central to the civil rights movement, this pathbreaking book examines not only written texts but also oral history interviews to establish a rich tradition of freedom that emerged from the movement. He also makes clear that, though liberal notions of freedom involving the absence of restrictions and equal protections were crucial to movement goals, the movement was as much about individual and collective self-transformation and political participation as it was about removal of barriers to social and political equality. Along the way figures such as Martin Luther King and Ella Baker, Stokely Carmichael and James Forman, and political thinkers such as Hannah Arendt and Frantz Fanon are discussed and analyzed.Civil Rights and the Idea of Freedomconcludes that the civil rights movement helped revitalize the meaning of citizenship and the political importance of self-respect in the contemporary world with implications reaching beyond its original setting.

A well-documented, scholarly analysis of the impact of ideas on activists. --CHOICE

Stimulating and subtle, the author's arguments are also refreshingly forthright....King's book is a salutary and thought-provoking reminder that the civil rights movement...did extend the boundaries and meanings of freedom in a creative and compelling manner. --Journal of Southern History

A remarkable book....A valuable prologue to the broader intellectual history of [the civil rights] movement. --Southern Historian

King begins with a stimulating analysis of what he calls [repertory of freedom], showing that freedom as a political concept has numerous meanings. This excellent study deals with vital but complex issues in a lucid and accessible manner, King makes very good use of oral History, particularly from Howard University's Civil Rights Documentation Project, and hlӤ