With vision and political savvy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy set the United States on a path toward fulfilling its promise of liberty and justice for all. In The Promise and the Dream, Margolick examines their unique bond, both in life and in their tragic assassinations, just sixty-two days apart in 1968. Through original interviews, oral histories, FBI files, and previously untapped contemporaneous accounts, Margolick offers a revealing portrait of these two men and the mutual assistance, awkwardness, antagonism, and admiration that existed between them.
MLK and RFK cut distinct but converging paths toward lasting change. Even when they weren't interacting directly, they monitored and learned from one another. Their joint story, a story each man took pains to hide during their lives, is not just gripping history but a window into the challenges we continue to face in America.
Complemented by award-winning historian Douglas Brinkley's foreword and more than eighty revealing photos by the foremost photojournalists of the period, The Promise and the Dream offers a compelling look at one of the most consequential but misunderstood relationships in our nation's history.
"A vivid, vibrant, deeply thoughtful and well-informed reflection on the 1960s' two most fascinating public figures."
David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Bearing the Cross and Rising Star
"An engaging work of popular history that revisits the interconnected lives of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy."
The New York Times Book Review
"Although the lives of both men have been covered in detail, Margolick does a fine job of not only portraying crucial events-with the help of new interviews and newly unsealed histories and documents-but also plowing through the misty romanticism that still surrounds these men."
