b'It\\u2019s hard to think of a more celebrated figure of the 20th century than Martin Luther King Jr.\\n\\nHe has a national memorial in Washington, D.C. His birthday is one of just 11 federal holidays. And his words and legacy are routinely evoked by politicians of both major parties.\\n\\nBut the paradox of King\\u2019s legacy is that while many revere him, very few actually read him. Most of us can cite a handful of his most famous quotes, but King\\u2019s actual teachings span five books, countless speeches and sermons, and years of detailed correspondence.\\n\\nThere\\u2019s perhaps no scholar working today who studies Dr. King\\u2019s political philosophy as deeply as Brandon Terry. Terry is the John L. Loeb associate professor of social sciences at Harvard, where he specializes in Black political thought. He is the co-editor of \\u201cTo Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr.,\\u201d the editor of \\u201cFifty Years Since MLK,\\u201d and the author of numerous popular and academic articles on King\\u2019s political thought. His work is committed to rescuing the nuances of Dr. King\\u2019s philosophies and forcing a confrontation with what King actually said and believed, rather than what he\\u2019s come to represent.\\n\\nIn this conversation, we follow the commitment that animates much of Terry\\u2019s work: to take King seriously as a philosopher, rather than as purely a political actor. And it turns out that King understood a lot about politics that we\\u2019ve lost sight of today. We discuss why a \\u201cromantic narrative\\u201d of the civil rights era stops us from taking King seriously as a philosopher; the true radicalism of King\\u2019s nonviolent philosophy; King\\u2019s complex views on the relationship between race and class; how King wrestled with the demands of \\u201crespectability politics\\u201d; King\\u2019s wide-ranging economic views, including the idea that the economy should be subservient to the community (and not the other way around); King\\u2019s enthusiasm for tenant unions and welfare rights unions as critical democratic inventions; whether the state should embrace the same nonviolence it often demands of protesters; the roots of King\\u2019s opposition to the war in Vietnam; whether we\\u2019ve lost the ability to grapple with \\u201cvirtue\\u201d in politics today; and more.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\n\\u201cImagining the nonviolent state\\u201d\\xa0by Ezra Klein\\n\\n\\u201cBeyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence\\u201d by Martin Luther King Jr.\\n\\nFrom the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Hinton\\n\\n\\u201cRethinking the Problem of Alliance: Organized Labor and Black Political Life\\u201d by Brandon M. Terry and Jason Lee\\n\\nThe Truly Disadvantaged by William Julius Wilson\\n\\nBook recommendations:\\n\\nWhere Do We Go From Here by Martin Luther King Jr.\\n\\nThe Trumpet of Conscience by Martin Luther King Jr.\\n\\nThe Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph\\n\\nA More Beautiful and Terrible History by Jeanne Theoharis\\n\\nDark Ghettos by Tommie Shelby\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Rog\\xe9 Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker and Rollin Hu. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Jeff Geld. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.'