Reviews for The dream

The average rating for The dream based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-07-13 00:00:00 Michael Andrews My recommendation: read (or watch) Martin Luther King Jr's speech instead. It's so much more powerful than this analysis of why it was powerful. The first 100 pages of this book stood strong (as they mostly laid out the nascent Civil Rights movement and King's speech itself, which brought me to tears), and the sections comparing different versions of the speech to that final, impassioned delivery are interesting to read. However, we don't need Drew Hansen to tell us why this speech worked and is still studied in schools today. And then the later chapters, on King's life post-speech, between August 1963 and his assassination in 1968, are filled with a lot of very frustrating and heartbreaking moments in the Civil Rights movement. What struck me most about this book was King's fidelity to non-violence. His many speeches - outside of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech - deal with his belief that non-violent protest could impart significant and long-lasting change on America. It's in stark contrast to the news reels we see today on the 2020 riots, protests, and rampant vandalism and destruction in cities across the US. There is much to ponder in this book, but it doesn't require Hansen's analysis - King's work stands on its own and is astonishingly powerful, sixty years after his words were recorded.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-10 00:00:00 Lynda Johnson A couple months ago I took a spur of the moment trip to Washington DC. I spent most of my time going to the different museums, soaking up whatever knowledge I could about our Nation’s Art and History. I’m ashamed to say the MLK monument was low on my list of things to see. However in between visits to the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial I remembered that the MLK Memorial was nearby. I popped over and expected to catch a quick glimpse and move on. The memorial itself did not immediately grab me, paling in grandeur when compared to the rest of DC’s attractions. However when I began to read each of King’s quotes on the walls, I began to legitimately cry. Each quote touched me deeply to my core. I stayed at the memorial for over an hour. As I left I quickly stopped at the bookstore because I knew I had to buy a book to learn more about MLK. I chose this book because I thought the idea of a deep-dive on his most famous speech would be interesting. Just like the memorial, this book too blew me away. I found the sections leading up to the speech incredibly informative and also very saddening. It set the scene for his famous speech very well. The section going over the day of the March was interesting, and reading the speech itself was awe-inspiring. I really liked the dive into the language of the speech and learning about Martin Luther’s history with certain phrases used within the speech. I did think the book could have been around 50 pages shorter in this part, and certain sections kind of dragged on and I began to worry the book would not pick up again. However once the author moved past the analysis of the speech and back to King’s life after the speech I found myself extremely interested once again. Learning about the difficulties King faced after his early wins in 64 and 65 was eye-opening. His dark days from 65-68 were very sad to read and even sadder when you consider that the true racism that King couldn’t beat still exists today. I’m glad the book did not dwell on his assassination but rather shifted the focus to the nation’s immediate re-contextualization of Kings famous speech and how America came to posthumously view King and his work. It’s both fascinating and frustrating. I was amazed by this book and would recommend it to anyone who only knows King by his “I Have a Dream” speech.