Not Dreaming: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Critique of America

"Not Dreaming: Martin Luther King Jr's Critique of America seeks to deepen the American public's understanding of its most famous African American protest leader. While Americans venerate MLK as great orator who dreamed of a world free of racism, most are unfamiliar with King's penetrating and radical social criticism. Not Dreaming reveals that MLK spoke and wrote extensively about what he termed the "triple evils" afflicting the US: racism, militarism, and the extreme materialism that yielded vast economic inequality. These flaws that plagued America in MLK's lifetime, persist in 21st century America, giving a striking contemporary relevance to King's social criticism. His democratic vision of an American civilization that embraced non-violence, valued people over profits, abolished poverty, rejected war, and broke with its white supremacist past is one that our nation, badly needs to consider. Not Dreaming, then, offers us MLK not merely as a historical figure but as a critic whose ideas can help 21st century America become a more just, humane, and democratic society"-- Provided by publisher.