In a layered narrative, Todd Purdum tells the story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recreating the legislative maneuvering and the larger-than-life characters who made its passage possible. From the Kennedy brothers to Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr. to Hubert Humphrey, Purdum shows how these all-too-human figures managed, in just over a year, to create a bill that prompted the longest filibuster in the history of the U.S. Senate, yet was ultimately adopted with overwhelming bipartisan support.