Gospel of Freedom - by Jonathan Rieder (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," declared Martin Luther King, Jr. He had come to that city of racist terror convinced that massive protest could topple Jim Crow. But the insurgency faltered. To revive it, King made a sacrificial act on Good Friday, April 12, 1963: he was arrested. Alone in his cell, reading a newspaper, he found a statement from eight "moderate" clergymen who branded the protests extremist and "untimely."

King drafted a furious rebuttal that emerged as the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"-a work that would take its place among the masterpieces of American moral argument alongside those of Thoreau and Lincoln. His insistence on the urgency of "Freedom Now" would inspire not just the marchers of Birmingham and Selma, but peaceful insurgents from Tiananmen to Tahrir Squares.

Scholar Jonathan Rieder delves deeper than anyone before into the Letter-illuminating both its timeless message and its crucial position in the history of civil rights. Rieder has interviewed King's surviving colleagues, and located rare audiotapes of King speaking in the mass meetings of 1963. Gospel of Freedom gives us a startling perspective on the Letter and the man who wrote it: an angry prophet who chastised American whites, found solace in the faith and resilience of the slaves, and knew that moral appeal without struggle never brings justice.

Review Quotes

"Rieder offers a sparkling reconsideration of the letter...Rieder's trenchant comments approach the letter on historical and literary grounds but also as a way to better understand the often elusive King.... A slim volume that packs plenty of punch, Gospel of Freedom is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the civil rights movement, King, and America itself." --Booklist (starred review)

"A brilliant new reading of 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' Jonathan Rieder rescues a document too often encased in abstraction, insisting we read it in its searing moment: amidst the violence, hope, and courage of the struggle for racial justice in which it was born. Gospel of Freedom is an indispensable guide to one of the most important documents of the twentieth century.

" --Daniel T. Rodgers, the Lea Professor of History, Princeton University, author of Age of Fracture

"'Letter from Birmingham Jail' has been long overshadowed by Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech. Now Jonathan Rieder has written a vital book that gives the Birmingham letter its due as a piece of sacred literature in the long war against Jim Crow. A compelling book." --Jon Meacham, author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

About the Author

Jonathan Rieder is professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism. He has been a regular commentator on TV and radio, a contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and a contributing editor for the New Republic.