Five important books about prejudice

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is the author of the international bestseller Hitler's Willing Executioners, A Moral Reckoning, Worse than War, and the new book, The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism.

One of his most important books about prejudice, as told to The Daily Beast:

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63
by Taylor Branch

A history of the herculean effort required to overcome deeply entrenched racism that was the foundation of the American South’s political, social, economic, and cultural systems. Shows the strategic and tactical complexity of mobilizing social and political forces to overcome segregation and break the barriers of racism. It especially well highlights the critical part that leadership can contribute, here in the person of Martin Luther King, for turning such tides.

Read about another book on Goldhagen's list.

Parting the Waters is on the Christian Science Monitor's list of ten of the best books about Martin Luther King, Jr and Gal Beckerman's list of six favorite books about political movements, and appears on the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five books on the civil rights movement.

--Marshal Zeringue