Peter J. Ling is emeritus professor of American studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy in the Rouledge Historical Biography series. Dave Deverick is lecturer in American politics at De Montfort University and has contributed to books on Reconstruction, and The Encyclopedia of Leadership.

Ling is a prolific historian of the Civil Rights Movement who previously wrote the narrative biography Martin Luther King, Jr. (2002; second ed., 2015) as part of the "Routledge Historical Biographies" series. This reference work, co-authored by Deverick, includes achronology, introduction, and an outstanding topical bibliography that covers comparison to Gandhi, the Vietnam War, and King's theology. The well-researched entries include bolded personal names for individuals noted within the text. Most praiseworthy, the text includes highly useful and hard-to-find ready reference information, such as the date King met Richard Nixon, or Rosa Parks's little-known predecessors who had earlier integrated Montgomery buses. The work amply praises King's profound impact on American history, but the authors do not ignore charges of his plagiarism. Diligently researched, this work will greatly benefit students and scholars of King. Recommended. All readers.