Historian Paul Harvey has written a powerful biography about Martin Luther King. This book delves into Martin Luther King’s life through his complex, evolving beliefs. Through this book, we get to know the man not just the legend we’ve heard about. I highly recommend this engaging, informative, well-written, and well-researched book for lovers of history.

If you think you know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. then think again. Paul Harvey’s new biography Martin Luther King: A Religious Life presents the man that is seldom discussed and known. This book focuses on his role as a religious figure and moral philosopher. The King we are taught about usually is the man who gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Every January on the King holiday, we tend to hear the same lines from that speech, lines that are usually taken out of context, such as: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” But we seldom hear his radical words from the same speech, especially those about economic justice.

The King you don’t know supported reparations and a guaranteed annual income. King who advocated for nonviolence throughout his public career was actually reluctant to use that tactic when it was first introduced to him by Howard Thurman and James Lawson, King initially thought the tactic was suicidal.

King talked about his death often, not just the night before his assassination in 1968. He talked about going to “the mountaintop” and seeing the “promised land” as early as 1957, because he knew that he could always become a martyr.

Harvey also covers the unflattering parts of King’s life, his vices including his sexual indiscretions, which are only known because of FBI surveillance.

Harvey ultimately comes to the conclusion that King was a misunderstood martyr, one who was hated by whites at the time of his murder and who annoyed some Blacks who thought his advocacy for nonviolence was ineffective or disagreed with his anti-Vietnam War stance. Nowadays everyone loves Dr. King, because as Harvey states we tend to pick and choose what aspects of King we agree with. Some whites tend to push a less threatening King who has a simple message about how we should get beyond color and focus solely on character, but refrain from speaking on his more radical economic and social messages that are being promoted today by groups such as Black Lives Matter. Harvey shows that King’s words, in the last years of his life, mirror the rhetoric of BLM. The folks who criticize BLM today would have also criticized MLK in 1968. Ultimately the reader learns that King was radical for most of his adult life not just in his later years. If you think you know King, read Harvey’s book, dive into the recent scholarship, and think again.

I find myself delving more and more into books that push me to think about our history and society. Bringing Dr King’s life, work and message into the mix is always welcome and this is a very welcome addition to that.