Reviewed by:

• The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. by Peniel E. Joseph
• Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson

More than half a century after their violent deaths, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X remain the most powerful icons of the African American freedom struggle. Their images, however, have often fallen prey to misconception: King tends to be remembered only as the benign proponent of Black and white racial harmony and the "beloved community," while Malcolm X is often reduced to a radical Black demagogue who viewed all whites as "devils" and called for resistance "by any means necessary." In The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr., historian Peniel E. Joseph explains how complex the views and convictions of both leaders really were, how much their attitudes changed over time, and how their goals regarding human rights and social justice converged to an amazing degree toward the end of their lives.

The book's ten chapters follow a chronological order and can be characterized as a comparative intellectual history. Rather than going into detail on the personal lives of King and Malcolm X, or giving much information on their organizations and political campaigns, Joseph focuses on the intellectual development of his protagonists. Taking examples from their speeches and writings and using a number of expressive metaphors (besides the title-inspiring "sword" and "shield" images, he calls Malcolm X "black America's prosecuting attorney" and King "the nation's chief defense attorney on both sides of the color line"), Joseph analyzes the diverse influences that shaped both men's political philosophy and tactical approaches (p. 11). King's economic visions [End Page 362] grew increasingly radical toward the end of his life; his criticism of the Vietnam War grew louder, as did his calls for more economic justice and a "revolution of values" in the United States (p. 269). As a result, King became a figure of greater controversy in the late 1960s and, just like Malcolm X, endured intrusive FBI surveillance and almost daily death threats. Malcolm X also went through a radical transformation of his views. After leaving the Nation of Islam, he gave up its antiwhite separatist ideology and instead strove for human rights and the collaboration of all oppressed people, which included his seeking to cooperate with King and the civil rights movement. Even as outspoken antagonists for most of their public careers, both men were influenced by the other's words and actions, and, as Joseph points out, they eventually developed a certain respect, even admiration, for each other. By the end of their lives, the author concludes, King and Malcolm X were moving toward one another in key ways. Their interaction had added "critical new dimensions to their political and intellectual repertoire," and they still "continue to offer the world powerful legacies of radical social and political transformation" (pp. 314, 316).

Although the book somewhat overstates the influence of the Black Power movement and the later Malcolm X on King's development after 1965, its main thesis is certainly correct. However, it is not new. Joseph is joining a chorus of scholarly voices who have discussed the remarkable changes in King's and Malcolm X's views and the convergence of their political goals for quite some time, including James Baldwin, Allan Aubrey Boesak, James H. Cone, David J. Garrow, Taylor Branch, Michael Eric Dyson, Manning Marable, Brandon M. Terry, and this author.

The book is therefore hardly "a masterwork of bold historical revisionism" as described in one of its blurbs. Moreover, at times, Joseph would have benefited from a more critical assessment of the nature of his sources (for example, he discusses neither the fact that most of King's written texts were not authored by himself nor the role of Alex Haley in shaping Malcolm X's autobiography). Still, with its unique focus and great detail, this book makes a valuable...

审核人：

• 《剑与盾：马尔科姆X和马丁·路德·金的革命生活》，作者： Peniel E. Joseph
• 布里塔·沃尔德施密特·纳尔逊

暴力死亡后半个多世纪，小马丁·路德·金（Martin Luther King Jr.）和马尔科姆·X（Malcolm X）仍然是非洲裔美国人自由斗争的最有力象征。然而，他们的形象常常被误解为误解：国王往往只被视为黑人和白人种族和谐与“心爱的社区”的良性拥护者而被人们铭记，而马尔科姆X经常沦为看过所有白人的激进黑人煽动者。作为“恶魔”，并呼吁“采取一切必要手段抵抗”。在《剑与盾》：《 Malcom X和小马丁·路德·金的革命生活》中历史学家佩尼尔·约瑟夫（Peniel E. Joseph）解释了两位领导人的观点和信念到底有多复杂，他们的态度随时间变化了多少，以及他们在人权和社会正义方面的目标如何在生命的尽头达到惊人的程度。

该书的十章按时间顺序排列，可被描述为比较思想史。约瑟夫没有详细介绍国王和马尔科姆X的个人生活，也没有提供有关其组织和政治运动的大量信息，而是着重介绍了他的主人公的智力发展。以他们的演讲和著作为例，并使用一些表达性的隐喻（除了标题启发性的“剑”和“盾牌”图像之外，他称马尔科姆X为“美国黑人起诉律师”，而金则称“双方均为美国首席首席辩护律师”。色线”），约瑟夫分析了塑造男性政治哲学和战术方法的各种影响（第11页）。金的经济远景[完页362]在他生命的尽头变得越来越激进；他对越战的批评越来越强烈，他呼吁在美国加强经济正义和“价值观念的革命”的呼声也越来越高（第269页）。结果，金在1960年代后期成为争议更大的人物，就像马尔科姆X一样，他接受了联邦调查局（FBI）的侵入性监视和几乎每天的死亡威胁。马尔科姆·X（Malcolm X）也对他的观点进行了彻底的转变。离开伊斯兰国家后，他放弃了反白人分裂主义的意识形态，转而争取人权和所有被压迫人民的合作，其中包括他寻求与国王和民权运动合作。即使是大多数公共事业的直言不讳的反对者，两人都受到对方言行的影响，正如约瑟夫指出的那样，他们最终彼此之间有了一定的尊重甚至钦佩。作者总结说，在生命的尽头，King和Malcolm X正以关键的方式走向彼此。他们之间的互动为他们的政治和思想库增添了重要的新维度，并且仍然“继续为世界提供了激进的社会和政治变革的强大遗产”（第314、316页）。

尽管该书在某种程度上高估了黑人权力运动和后来的Malcolm X对1965年以后金的发展的影响，但其主要论点当然是正确的。但是，这并不新鲜。约瑟夫（Joseph）参加了由学者组成的合唱团，他们讨论了国王和马尔科姆·X观点的显着变化以及他们的政治目标的融合已有相当长的一段时间，其中包括詹姆斯·鲍德温，艾伦·奥布里·波萨克，詹姆斯·霍恩·詹姆斯，泰勒·布兰奇（Taylor Branch），迈克尔·埃里克·戴森（Michael Eric Dyson），曼宁·马布尔（Manning Marable），布兰登·M·特里（Brandon M.Terry）和该作者。

因此，这本书很难像其摘要之一所描述的那样是“大胆的历史修正主义的杰作”。此外，有时，约瑟夫本来会从对他的资料来源的性质进行更为严格的评估中受益（例如，他既没有讨论金的大部分书面文本并非由他本人撰写的事实，也没有讨论亚历克斯·海利在塑造马尔科姆·X的著作中的作用）。自传）。尽管如此，凭借其独特的重点和详尽的细节，这本书还是很有价值的。