Martin Luther King, 'At Canaan's Edge' [14min]

In Taylor Branch's history At Canaan's Edge, Martin Luther King Jr. is a citizen of his time. The Alabama peace marches; the Watts riots of 1965; the Vietnam conflict that dominated the late '60s -- King dealt with them all. The first book in Branch's trilogy, Parting the Waters, won the Pulitzer Prize for history. Pillar of Fire, his second installment, was published in 1998 -- it follows the path the movement and its leaders from President John F. Kennedy in the White House to King being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At Canaan's Edge begins in Selma, Ala. -- just before a bloody confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday, March 7, 1965, between state troopers and marchers on their way to petition Gov. George Wallace for the right of black people to vote. The book ends in 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where King was shot and killed. In describing the days between those two seminal events, Branch touches on myriad elements of King's life, both large and small -- from his discussions with President Lyndon Johnson to what type of cologne Ralph Abernathy favored. At more than 1,000 pages, At Canaan's Edge stands as a chronicle of a turbulent time in American history. And its subject -- an Atlanta reverend who energized people from all walks of life -- is an ideal prism through which to view an era that changed the country.