| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 214 words from this article are provided below; about 445 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–68. By Taylor Branch. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. xiv, 1039 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-684-85712-X.)
At Canaan's Edge concludes Taylor Branch's 2,500-page, three-volume history of the modern struggle for civil rights. (The first two volumes are Parting the Waters [1988], covering 1954–1963, and Pillars of Fire [1998], covering 1963–1965.) His sweeping survey will be read and consulted for years to come. Branch's massive project is more than a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. and more, even, than a study of the civil rights movement. As the book's subtitle, America in the King Years, indicates, its field of vision covers the country's history from the mid-1950s to 1968.	1
Two major themes frame this book. Branch situates the civil rights movement within the broader story of American democracy. To Branch, King is the modern successor to James Madison and the Founding Fathers. And, more fully, Branch emphasizes the virtues and power of nonviolence (even as it met stiff resistance and public indifference) as a way to realize the democratic promise. The "nonviolent pioneers from the civil rights era," he writes, "stand tall in the commitment to govern oneself and develop political bonds with strangers, rather than vice versa" (p. xii).	. . .

There are about 445 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.