Perspective

The perspective of the book is King's but he did not really write his autobiography. The manager of his papers, Clayborne Carson, combined various autobiographical sketches, speeches and notes from King's writings and books in order to produce a chronologically accurate story of King's life in his own words. Thus, the perspective of the book is King's, but the King of many different times, places and emotional states. There is still a striking continuity, however. King has many biases; the book expresses clear religious, political, social, economic, cultural and philosophical opinions. King was a (largely) theologically liberal Christian who believed that Christianity should use reason more than it does and that fundamentalism was often destructive; however, King strongly believed that God was with him during his struggles and prayed often. He even believed that God spoke to him in times of trouble. King was an ardent advocate of...