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Waging a good war : a military history of the civil rights movement, 1954-1968

2022

Format:	Book
Author:	Ricks, Thomas E., author.
Title:	Waging a good war : a military history of the civil rights movement, 1954-1968 / Thomas E. Ricks.
Edition:	First edition.
Publisher, Date:	New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.
Description:	xx, 422 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Summary:	"A new history of the Civil Rights Movement with an emphasis on its nonviolent use of military tactics and strategy"-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects:	African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th century. Civil rights movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century. Nonviolence -- United States -- History -- 20th century. Military art and science -- United States. Tactics. Strategy.
Other Title:	Military history of the civil rights movement, 1954-1968
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-389) and index.
Contents:	Preface : a different angle on the civil rights movement -- Introduction : stirrings, 1865-1954 -- Montgomery, 1955-1956 : besieging a city -- Nashville, 1960 : developing a nonviolent cadre -- The Freedom Rides, 1961 : a raid behind enemy lines -- The Albany movement, 1961-1962 : stymied by an adaptive adversary -- Ole Miss, 1962 : a racial confrontation that lacked movement input -- Early Birmingham, Spring 1963 : putting children on the front lines -- The March on Washington, mid-1963 : taking the national stage -- Later Birmingham, Fall 1963 : counter-escalation against children -- Oxford, Ohio, June 1964 : SNCC prepares to assault a state -- The Battle of Mississippi, July and August 1964 : Freedom Summer -- Selma, 1965 : victory -- and factionalization -- Chicago, 1966 : a bridge too far -- Memphis, 1968 : the costs of it all -- Epilogue: the good war today
LCCN:	2022023645
ISBN:	9780374605162 (hardcover) 0374605165
OCLC:	1289243918
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Library Journal Review

Specializing in military strategy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, No. 1 New York Times best-selling Ricks (Fiasco) examines the Civil Rights movement in its light, arguing that the successes of the past century were won not only by idealists like Martin Luther King Jr. but by the kind of recruiting, training, and organization that characterizes every triumphant military campaign. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Publishers Weekly Review

War-fighting doctrine is an unfamiliar yet ideal way to frame America's "civil rights revolution," according to this penetrating study. Pulitzer winner Ricks (Fiasco) illuminates episodes in the struggle against Southern segregation, including the 1956--1957 Montgomery bus boycott, during which Martin Luther King Jr. crafted his strategy of nonviolent action, and the 1960 Nashville lunch-counter sit-ins, for which activists received careful training, including role-playing sessions in which they were hit, spat on, and doused with coffee. The 1963 Birmingham desegregation campaign--the movement's "Gettysburg," in Ricks's telling--was won by the public-relations masterstroke of a Black children's march that braved public safety commissioner Bull Connor's fire hoses and police dogs, while the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer voter registration drive saw activists weathering violence--six murders, dozens of beatings and bombings--that scarred them, like shell-shocked soldiers, with "battle fatigue." Ricks's military metaphors sometimes feel strained, but they incisively spotlight the nuts and bolts of the movement's achievements: meticulous planning and organizing, shrewd analysis of goals and the means to accomplish them, maintenance of discipline and morale, and cold-blooded realism. The result is a trenchant and stimulating guide to the strategies and tactics that can achieve sweeping social change. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Oct.)

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