RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewNo brief review can do full justice to the Kendricks’ masterly and often riveting account of King’s ordeal and the 1960 \'October Surprise\' that may have altered the course of modern American political history. Suffice it to say that any reader who navigates the many twists and turns and surprises in this complex tale will come away recognizing the power of historical contingency.
Gene Roberts, Hank Klibanoff
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewVeteran journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff painstakingly trace the evolution of civil rights press coverage in the South ... The Race Beat is very much an insider’s account. Roberts and Klibanoff are sensitive to the details and challenges of journalistic practice ... The result is a richly textured and balanced narrative that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the news media, as well as the personal and contingent factors...that influenced the on-the-ground coverage of the movement and its opponents ... Their stories, and the fateful choices of a not-so-distant past, are worth pondering in an imperfect democracy still grappling with both the burdens of race and the responsibilities of a free press.
David Margolick
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewHe devotes much of the book to a painstaking reconstruction of each man’s evolving moral and political consciousness — a dual narrative that reveals convergence but very little evidence of a developing relationship, either personal or public ... Even so, Margolick makes a strong case that the two leaders ended up in roughly the same place by 1968 ... With a half-century of historical perspective and Margolick’s help, we can now see the full potential for creative collaboration between the politician of promise and the dreamer. But, as the author of this carefully rendered book points out, the celebrated singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte — one observer who knew both men well — already recognized this potential during that fateful spring, describing 'a Kennedy-King alliance' as 'the right wing’s greatest fear.' ”
