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The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. Learning How We Can All Get Along
On a dark street, what began as a private moment between a citizen and the police became a national outrage.
Rodney Glen King grew up in the Altadena Pasadena section of Los Angeles with four siblings, a loving mother, and an alcoholic father. Soon young Rodney followed in Dad's stumbling steps, beginning a lifetime of alcohol abuse.
King had been drinking the night of March...more
Rodney Glen King grew up in the Altadena Pasadena section of Los Angeles with four siblings, a loving mother, and an alcoholic father. Soon young Rodney followed in Dad's stumbling steps, beginning a lifetime of alcohol abuse.
King had been drinking the night of March...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
April 24th 2012
(first published January 1st 1992)
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Where to begin? This book is the autobiography of Rodney King, and chronicles his early life, the near death beating by LAPD officers, the L.A. riots, the subsequent legal proceedings, and the ups and downs in his life both before and after.
What I appreciated about the book was simply his story and the telling of what happened that night as well as what Mr. King went through with the legal cases against the officers and the City of Los Angeles. There was a lot I didn't know or realize because I...more
What I appreciated about the book was simply his story and the telling of what happened that night as well as what Mr. King went through with the legal cases against the officers and the City of Los Angeles. There was a lot I didn't know or realize because I...more
I sat down with Rodney King's new book, The Riot Within (written with Lawrence J. Spagnola and published by Harper One), half-expecting a drawn out explanation of the infamous beating that shook the US in 1991. I remember the media frenzy and the riots, the outrage and the confusion. The event shaped the views of many young people on race and the power of authority, including mine.
King's beating by four white police officers, the trial and riots, and the Federal cases that followed is covered i...more
King's beating by four white police officers, the trial and riots, and the Federal cases that followed is covered i...more
Reading this book made me even more sad about Rodney King's untimely death. You sort of wanted the book to make everything turn out all right in the end, but it wasn't a made for TV miniseries. He had a lot of problems before and after his beating, and he didn't want that one incident to define his life. He rose above what had happened to him and made his famous appeal for peace during the riots. And it choked me up inside to hear how he had thought about slaves being beaten in order to live thr...more
I was reading an article about Rodney King's recent death that mentioned he had recently released his autobiography. I read it out of curiosity and really enjoyed it. It was written in a way that made you feel like Rodney was telling you his story as a friend. The focus was not as much on the beating and riots that followed the acquittal, but on Rodney's life afterwards and his struggle to move past what happened to him and conquer his addictions. The final part of the book was sad to read knowi...more
Do you remember the bloody incident that put Rodney King on our TV screens? Turns out he's evolved since that moment when the LAPD pulverized him and now he's a reality show star. King's intelligence is a surprising element of his memoir. A miracle that he could survive his youth and the beating to become a zillionaire. A fairy tale in its way.
Rodney King will forever have an unwanted place in American infamy. This personal account toucjes on racism, addiction, brutality, and the efforts of one man to overcome hos addiction and come to grips with his place in history.
Excellent book-I could not put it down and when I did I couldn't wait to pick it up again and read more.
Heart-wrenching, gut-twisting story. I was vaguely aware of the event growing up, but Mr. King (may he rest in peace) himself put it into some serious perspective. It's unfortunate that he never learned to right his ways. In some parts of the book it seemed like he was on the right track, even writing the book itself. I gave it three stars because of the writing style, I wasn't a fan of it.
This book wasn't as great as I thought it would be, but I felt compelled to finish it. It was interesting to learn how he grew up & how the beating affected him & shaped our world. I was in high school in NY when it happened & I remember the tension it caused on the other side of the country.
May 08, 2013
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