Having finished this massive three volume history of the civil rights era, I can say I’ve learned a lot. The only drawback, for me, was Branch’s convoluted writing style. He often buries the lede of his paragraphs, states key facts passively, and often changes the subject completely mid-paragraph.

Credit for the fight for civil rights goes to far more figures than just King, who seemed to fall into the role of leadership more than seeking to assume it. But he accomplished more with his Gandhi-derived method of non-violence than his rivals and critics. Some of those rivals were more interesting people to read about than the stead, mostly serious-minded King: Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, etc.

The more I read about Lyndon Johnson, the more I admire him, and the more I read about Bobby Kennedy, the less I like him. But the sections that deal with these two, and with the malevolent and malignant J. Edgar Hoover, are fascinating.

The main lesson to draw from these books is that King’s non-violent protests accomplished far more than all the violence in Vietnam, which accomplished less than nothing.