“King: A Life” is a highly readable and engrossing account of the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and of the moral and spiritual directions he gave to the civil rights movement. Here is an absorbing and perceptive book about a courageous and dedicated hero.

Jonathan Eig also delves into King’s defects of character, but, more importantly, “King: A Life” examines why we honor King, his accomplishments, his humanity, and his legacy.

“King: A Life” doesn’t just discuss information contained in previously published biographies of King. Eig relied on thousands of recently released FBI documents, and thousands of other new items such as personal letters, business records, oral histories, unaired television footage, White House telephone recordings, and unpublished autobiographies and biographies of people who were close to King. He also examined thousands of pages of material belonging to C.D. Reddick, who was the official historian for the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences, and audiotapes recorded by Coretta King in the months following her husband’s assassination.

When King delivered his greatest sermon during the 1963 March on Washington, he said, “I have a dream today that one day little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers … When we let freedom ring, when........

© Finger Lakes Times