To your local book seller and buy Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides. It is the best book I have read this year, meticulously researched and written. It is a book about the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and James Earl Ray and their collision of fate and the history of our country in the 60s. I couldn’t put it down. I devoured it. It is a magnificent work. Worth your time and money.
Ted's Take
Ted–That is a strong recommendation indeed…I was aware of the book, but your glowing review will definitely spur me to pick it up. As you may know, Sides also wrote “Blood & Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West,” which I found quite interesting (even thought the subtitle may be a little overstated).
Given that you found this story from the ’60s so interesting, I have a few additional recommendations of related interest:
- Stephen B. Oates, “Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life Of Martin Luther King Jr.”
- Robert Dallek, “Flawed Giant: Lyndon B. Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973″
- Robert Mann, “A Grand Delusion: America’s Descent Into Vietnam”
- James T. Patterson, “Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy”
– Patterson, “Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974″
- David Maraniss, “They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967″
John Besanko
Patriot Center /GMU