The Sword and the Shield
The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

My review is also published on Medium: [URL not allowed]-for-the-m... I grew up with a picture of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. hanging on my wall. Malcolm is on the left looking straight at you and King is on the right looking at Malcolm. Growing up I don’t think I ever questioned......more

This was an incredibly compelling and unbiased view of both of the US's most important civil rights leaders. Like most Americans of this generation, my education was embarrassingly devoid of a proper summary of the events that took place during the civil rights movement, particularly surrounding Mal......more

Joseph’s excellent study of Malcolm and Martin expands our perceptions of these monumental leaders to make clear how they influenced each other to the point where distinctions between them seem less important than the more fascinating view of seeing how they both developed and advocated forms of act......more

Excellent scholarship, thorough research, approachable prose, the ingredients necessary for a meaningful and necessary contribution to the study of Malcolm and Martin and their philosophies that were in constant flux influenced by not only each other, but by international travel, aides, and adversar......more

I read Joseph’s biography of Stokely Carmichael a while ago and took a history class with him last summer. He has a way of showing the story behind the myths so many of us have accepted as fact. For most of my life, I believed that Malcolm and Martin were polar opposites, grossly oversimplifying the......more