Martin Luther King, Jr., may be AmericaÕs most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and street names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of KingÕs assassination, the man and his activism are as close to public consciousness as ever. But despite his stature, the significance of KingÕs writings and political thought remains underappreciated. In To Shape a New World, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry write that the marginalization of KingÕs ideas reflects a romantic, consensus history that renders the civil rights movement inherently conservativeÑan effort not at radical reform but at Òliving up toÓ enduring ideals laid down by the nationÕs founders. On this view, King marshaled lofty rhetoric to help redeem the ideas of universal (white) heroes, but produced little original thought. This failure to engage deeply and honestly with KingÕs writings allows him to be conscripted into political projects he would not endorse, including the pernicious form of Òcolor blindnessÓ that insists, amid glaring race-based injustice, that racism has been overcome. Cornel West, Danielle Allen, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Gooding-Williams, and other authors join Shelby and Terry in careful, critical engagement with KingÕs understudied writings on labor and welfare rights, voting rights, racism, civil disobedience, nonviolence, economic inequality, poverty, love, just-war theory, virtue ethics, political theology, imperialism, nationalism, reparations, and social justice. In KingÕs exciting and learned work, the authors find an array of compelling challenges to some of the most pressing political dilemmas of our present, and rethink the legacy of this towering figure.