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The Preacher King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Word That Moved America. By Richard Lischcr. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. xiv, 344 pp. $25.00, ISBN 0-19508779-8)
It is not entirely clear if the pun in the first part of the title of this volume was altogether intended, but it nevertheless frames the book in a way that reminds the reader of the presence and power of the relationship between the pulpit and the podium in American political life. Richard Lischer's primary argument is that Martin Luther King Jr. was first, foremost, and always a preacher, a giver of sermons, regardless of the physical site from which he spoke or the specific task before him. And while, on its face, this claim seems somewhat obvious, perhaps even simplistic, beneath the veneer one encounters an engaged and provocative understanding of how King performed his role as the emblematic and charismatic leader of what has been arguably the most...