At Canaan's Edge

America in the King Years 1965-68

By: Taylor Branch

Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Janina Edwards

At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 is the final volume in Taylor Branch's magnificent history of America in the years of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War, recognized universally as the definitive account and ultimate recognition of Martin Luther King's heroic place in the nation's history.

The final volume of Taylor Branch's monumental, much honored, and definitive history of the Civil Rights Movement (America in the King Years), At Canaan's Edge covers the final years of King's struggle to hold his non-violent movement together in the face of factionalism within the Movement, hostility and harassment of the Johnson Administration, the country torn apart by Vietnam, and his own attempt (and failure) to take the Freedom Movement north.

At Canaan's Edge traces a seminal era in our defining national story, freedom. The narrative resumes in Selma, crucible of the voting rights struggle for black people across the South. The time is early 1965, when the modern Civil Rights Movement enters its second decade since the Supreme Court's Brown decision declared segregation by race a violation of the Constitution.

From Selma, King's non-violent Movement is under threat from competing forces inside and outside. Branch chronicles the dramatic voting rights drives in Mississippi and Alabama, Meredith's murder, the challenge to King from the Johnson Administration and the FBI and other enemies. When King tries to bring his Movement north (to Chicago), he falters. Finally we reach Memphis, the garbage strike, King's assassination.

Branch's magnificent trilogy makes clear why the Civil Rights Movement, and indeed King's leadership, are among the nation's enduring achievements.

A magnificent and breathtaking story, unevenly told.

I enjoyed this book deeply and will be moved by the stories. It conveys of this extraordinary man forever.

Sadly, the narration does not always rise to the level of the author’s prose, however. Names are frequently pronounced differently within the course of several minutes. Passages that contain grave, foreboding images are often pronounced with a casual, almost cheerful lilt. I own the hard copy of this book and, in one place, I confirmed that there is an explicit misreading of the printed text, with the mistaken identification of the year “1966”’as “1996.”

Both the narrators are obviously experts at their craft, and overall the presentation is highly professional. It *almost* matches the profundity of the text itself. But I stress that it is “almost” up to the task. I was too often distracted by the gap between the drama of Taylor Branch’s extraordinary account, and the mundaneness of much of the narration.

This is a long book and I do recommend the Audible version for people who don’t have time to read the hardcover. But be aware that there is a difference.

The King Years

I’ve always been fascinated by Dr. King and the things he stood for I’ve been most interested on what went on behind the scenes some organized but some things stood out especially the argument him and Rev. Jackson had. King was a very polarizing figure, stood for injustices and freedom behind the scenes he was very fascinating, dealing with so much pressure from the earlier years up until his death going through bouts of depression can definitely take it’s toll but nevertheless Dr. King was a very charismatic figure who’s inspiration has lived on for the past 60+ years.
Also great narratoring as well.

Great King bio and an engaging take on an era

This third title in the trilogy of America during the King era addressed the hectic times of King in the last three years of his intensely active life. However successful his campaigns for equality and human dignity, he could not satisfy the new radicals of the time who concluded that black power had made integration and non-violence obsolete, nor the complacent centrists, who believed King had gone too far in his social criticism. Today his words of opposition to the Vietnam war appear obvious, at the time his eloquent opposition to the Vietnam war meant being relegated to the margins. Many in the mainstream press were furious, accusing him, among other things, of being a deluded ingrate who harmed his cause. His consistent adherence to the philosophy of non-violence vindicated his cause. Taylor Branch captures the political twists and turns & the social atmospherics of this roller coaster an of era with the intensity and colour it deserves, There are chapters which unfold nearly like a montage of incongruent events. The performance is good. The practice of the two voices doing alternate chapters works successfully for this long listen. I was pleased when this volume recently appeared as an unabridged audiobook — I hope it will enjoy a large audience. There is so much of value to be learned here.