History Lessons

Novelist Dennis Lehane picks Hampton Sides' HellHound on Trial, as one of the great books he has recently read.

Says Lehane about his choice:

It’s a gripping evocation of a seismic American tragedy — the assassination of Martin Luther King. It speaks volumes about the evil of those who stoke and pervert populist rage for their own ends. Like any great book about the past, it illuminates the present with uncommon clarity.

 The "present" in this case happens to be the perils of history repeating itself, not anymore as a farce (as Marx had said about historical events of the 19th century), but as a beyond-tragedy.