[3] The titles of the three volumes, Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and At Canaan's Edge, were all drawn from aspects of the Old Testament Book of Exodus[4] – namely, the Crossing of the Red Sea, the manifestation of God that allowed the Israelites to travel by night, and the Promised Land, which Moses was able to see into, but did not live long enough to enter.

I--one of the reasons I wanted to do it was that I knew this had an enormous impact, somewhat like the Civil War and Reconstruction period a century before.

It covers such events as the Assassination of President Kennedy, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and King's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize.

[9] A one-volume summary of Branch's trilogy, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013.

Although in 2010 Oprah Winfrey's production company, Harpo, announced that it would be partnering with HBO to produce a miniseries based on Branch's trilogy, to be written by Robert Schenkkan,[10] the series has not yet been filmed.