ABSTRACT
Historians still mistrust biography, although the reading public clearly prefers it. Biography can inflate the role of its subject and, with one person consistently placed in the foreground, it may overlook the contribution of less celebrated figures. It may also distort historical understanding by giving too little weight to structural forces that require less personal, even quantitative, analysis. This continues to be the mood among scholars of the American Civil Rights Movement, who honor Dr. King, but want us to appreciate a longer and more complex struggle (Dowd Hall 2005).
