Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A bestselling author's innovative history of the civil rights movement, stressing its unexpected affinities with military strategy and lessons for nonviolent resistance around the world.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in 1955, she set the struggle for racial justice in America on a new and momentous course. Why did the civil rights movement in its heyday succeed in expanding rights and galvanizing a nation? And what lessons can today's nonviolent activists learn from its practitioners' strategies, tactics, and decisions made at key junctures?
In Waging a Good War, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas E. Ricks, presents new insight into America's defining social justice campaign, using the unlikely prism of military history and thought. He deftly follows Martin Luther King Jr. and other key figures from one campaign to another, demonstrating that the philosophy of nonviolence was an active and even aggressive method of confronting foes and achieving victory. In vivid anecdotes and stories, he calls attention to the movement's deft use of training, discipline, logistics, negotiation, and other indispensable tools for achieving change. Bringing King, Stokely Carmichael, and other leaders into new focus, Ricks also offers fascinating appreciations of less renowned figures who played critical roles in fashioning nonviolence into a potent weapon--the activists James Lawson, James Bevel, and Diane Nash foremost among them. And he also explores the movement's later difficulties as internal disputes and white backlash intensified. Rich with novel episodes and resonant lessons, Waging a Good War is an indispensable addition to the literature of racial justice and social change.
Synopsis
A bestselling author's innovative history of the civil rights movement, stressing its unexpected affinities with military strategy and its lessons for nonviolent resistance around the world.
In Waging a Good War, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas E. Ricks offers a radical new perspective on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and its legacy today, arguing that it had much more in common with military campaigns than is generally understood. If we see how much attention Movement leaders and stalwarts paid to issues such as recruiting, training, discipline and organization, and especially to strategy and tactics, we can develop a better grasp of why they succeeded.
Taking this novel approach, Ricks deftly follows Martin Luther King Jr. and other key figures from one campaign to another, demonstrating that the philosophy of nonviolence was an active and even aggressive method of confronting foes and achieving victory. In vivid anecdotes and stories, he calls attention to the Movement's deft use of military-inspired or military-like tools for achieving change. Bringing King, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis and other leaders into new focus, Ricks also offers fascinating appreciations of less renowned figures who played critical roles in fashioning nonviolence into a potent weapon--the activists James Lawson, James Bevel, Diane Nash and Septima Clark foremost among them. He also explores the Movement's later difficulties as internal disputes and white backlash intensified. Rich with novel episodes and resonant lessons, Waging a Good War is an indispensable addition to the literature of racial justice and social change.
At a time of extraordinary stress and division in America, Ricks offers a surprisingly optimistic conclusion, contending that if we understand better how the Civil Rights Movement succeeded in the 1960s, we can make even greater strides in our own time.
Synopsis
#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks offers a groundbreaking new take on the Civil Rights Movement, stressing its unexpected use of military strategy and its lessons for nonviolent resistance around the world.
In Waging a Good War, bestselling author Thomas E. Ricks offers an utterly new perspective on America's greatest moral revolution--the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s--and its legacy today. While the Movement has become synonymous with Martin Luther King Jr.'s ethos of nonviolence, Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter, draws on his deep knowledge of tactics and strategy to advance a surprising but revelatory idea: the greatest victories for Black Americans of the past century were won not by idealism alone, but by paying attention to recruiting, training, discipline, and organization--the hallmarks of any successful military campaign.
With a masterful command of storytelling, Ricks deftly narrates the movement's triumphs and defeats. He follows King and other key figures from Montgomery to Memphis, demonstrating how the philosophy of nonviolence encompassed active and even aggressive methods of confronting the Movement's adversaries, both on the ground and in the court of public opinion. While bringing legends such as Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis into new focus, Ricks also highlights lesser-known figures who played critical roles in fashioning nonviolence into a potent weapon--the activists James Lawson, James Bevel, Diane Nash, and Septima Clark foremost among them. He also offers a new understanding of the Movement's later difficulties as internal disputes and white backlash intensified. Rich with fresh interpretations of familiar events and overlooked aspects of America's civil rights struggle, Waging a Good War is an indispensable addition to the literature of racial justice and social change--and one that offers vital lessons for our own time.