A short, readable biography that sticks to King's public career and legacy. Fairclough, (History/Univ. of Wales, Lampeter; To Redeem the Soul of America, 1987) synthesizes material from the rich lode of King scholarship. He describes King's intellectual formation at Morehouse College and Crozer Theological Seminary, his public emergence during the 195556 Montgomery bus boycott, and his subsequent surge to civil rights leadership. The author explores King's philosophy of nonviolence, contrasting his nonpartisan reformism with the ideas of older black leaders like Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois, whose leftist sympathies made them victims of anticommunist fervor. Fairclough analyzes King's historic speech during the 1963 March on Washington, noting his use of ``hallowed symbols of Americanism'' to frame his call for social change. When King moved his protests north to cities like Chicago, he recognized that his incremental political victories had little effect on black poverty; in 1966 he began a more radical critique of American society, and the Vietnam War. Fairclough stumbles a few times. He states that allegations about King's sexual promiscuity ``are still confined to the realm of innuendo''; King colleague Ralph Abernathy's recent memoir supplies stronger evidence. Also, the author, commenting on Malcolm X, states that ``the earlier, angrier Malcolm...would be remembered and revered''; Malcolm's image is now under more subtle scrutiny. But Fairclough offers a savvy summary on King's legacy. Annual King Day celebrations, he writes, ``are too often tedious and empty rituals,'' and the ``I Have a Dream'' speech glosses over King's radicalism and militancy. While the author acknowledges that King was no original thinker, he believes that King's genius was his public speaking, his ``religious enthusiasm and moral certainty.'' And while some observers think King could not have staved off the decline of the civil rights movement, the author suggests that his leadership might indeed have achieved more. A good introduction for those too busy to read the more monumental King biographies.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8203-1690-3
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Univ. of Georgia
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dauntingly complete portrait of the one of the most powerful and significant figures in American journalism. Walter Winchell was all but forgotten at his death, but he created the modern gossip column and spearheaded the rise of the culture and cult of celebrity. Gabler (An Empire of Their Own, 1988) explains that Winchell uniquely understood that gossip ``was a weapon of empowerment for the reader and listener.'' Born to a Jewish family at the turn of the century, Winchell was an unlikely candidate for national power. After a childhood of Dickensian poverty, he escaped to vaudeville and then moved into journalism. Possessor of a slang-riddled prose style all his own, he was catapulted to fame covering Broadway for the Daily Graphic, a tabloid even more sleazy than any imagined in the mind of Rupert Murdoch. From there he moved to the slightly more legit Mirror, where he gradually switched from covering the demimonde of show folk and the night-clubbing rich to pontificating on national and local politics as a staunch New Dealer. But when FDR died, Winchell began an inexorable shift to the right, eventually falling in with the most scurrilous of red-baiters. A vindictive, selfish man, he died almost forgotten by the world of the famous that he had once terrorized. Gabler tells his rise-and-fall story in almost exhausting detail, recounting Winchell's constant feuding with colleagues and subjects, his army of sycophants, and his troubled family life. The result is alternately riveting and enervating, but Gabler makes a convincing case for Winchell's central role in the transformation of mass media in the middle years of the century. Clearly, the ghost of Walter Winchell is abroad in the land at a time when the O.J. Simpson preliminary hearings merit network coverage and a Supreme Court confirmation hearing does not. Gabler's book is timely, incisive and, for the most part, a good read.
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-41751-6
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
An autobiographical portrait of a black woman who worked her way up from convicted felon to award-winning reporter for the Washington Post. Only in retrospect does Gaines see her parents as having worked for the good of blacks by improving the well-being of their own family. As a teenager, she was, she says, a ``bullshit revolutionary'' who dismissed her father, an ex-Marine and a menial laborer, as an Uncle Tom and was attracted to macho men who exuded power. Ben, the first, gave her syphilis, persuaded her to steal from the store that employed her, and, when he was drafted, left her pregnant with their daughter, Andrea. She then married a man of whom her parents approved, but when he too was drafted and Ben reappeared, she gravitated back to her former boyfriend. This time he introduced her to heroin, and the romance finally ended when Gaines, carrying drugs for Ben and a friend of his, was busted. Although her lawyer bargained for probation, the conviction made it tough to find work until she learned to lie on job applications. Gaines progressed through more drugs and more destructive relationships. A major break came when, working as a secretary at the Charlotte Observer, her young white boss asked her to write for the employee newsletter. Still, she faced problems such as egregious racism (which made it difficult to find housing) and the needs of Andrea, who became troubled by depression. As Gaines turned her life around, she found in herself her father's ``spirit.'' This is intriguing, because Gaines focuses on her father as an emotionally absent figure, but it is her mother whose presence is all but effaced from this account. A grueling story of a woman who made it despite the odds. But even after undergoing therapy, Gaines still hasn't finished blaming others for things she did to herself. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59475-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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