One Man's Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle over an American Ideal

In the mid-1950s, Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the leaders of two diametrically opposed freedom movements that changed the course of American history—and still divide American politics. King mobilized civil rights activists under the banner of “freedom now,” insisting that true freedom would not be realized until all people—regardless of race—were empowered politically, economically, and socially. Goldwater rallied conservatives to the cause of “extremism in defense of liberty,” advocating radical individualism. In One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle over an American Ideal, Nicholas Buccola, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, tells the compelling story of Goldwater and King’s dramatic decade-long debate over the meaning of an all-important American ideal, one in which we can clearly discern echoes of the current American zeitgeist.