|
"A
fascinating contribution to civil rights
history."
|
|
American
Library Association Booklist
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|
"Doyle
has brought back into our historical consciousness
a moment so shameful that it almost disappeared
from memory without a trace."
|
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Houston
Chronicle
|
| |
|
"A
balanced narrative filled with fresh and
important details."
|
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Curtis
Wilkie, The Wilson Quarterly
|
| |
|
"His
vivid depiction of the terror and chaos
that expanded across the city suggests
that the our Civil War finally ended only
as US National Guard and Army Airborne
troops reestablished order in Oxford,
Mississippi, in 1962. Doyle's exhaustive
research and intense narrative should
reach beyond the target audience of those
who pursue civil rights and military issues."
|
|
Kirkus
Reviews
|
| |
|
"An
American Insurrection is a compelling
book. A riveting narrative, it also serves
as a painful reminder of the racial hatred
that once consumed the South and much
of the nation."
|
|
New
Orleans Times-Picayune
|
| |
|
"Doyle
has written a masterful and shocking account
. . . the writing is brilliant and powerful
. . . this is an unforgettable reading
experience."
|
|
Flint
Michigan Journal
|
| |
|
"An
American Insurrection is a rip-roaring,
exciting account of one of the crucial
confrontations of the civil rights movement.
And, in the shadows, is one of the strangest
heroes America has even conjured up."
|
|
William
S. McFeely,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Grant
and Frederick Douglass
|
| |
|
"This
fast-paced story of civil strife on a
colossal scale will astonish those too
young to remember the events themselves,
and yet is filled with enough fresh and
sometimes shocking detail to startle those
of us who will never forget them."
|
|
Geoffrey
C. Ward, author of The Civil War
|
| |
|
"Doyle
retraces, in intricate detail, one of
the most astonishing and violent confrontations
in American history. . .Doyle has written
a vivid portrait and riveting account.
He manages to succeed in both presenting
a civil rights history, as well as a military
history, yet it is simply an amazing retelling
of an event that has added to the paradoxical
American fabric of democracy that strives
to uphold human dignity, even in the face
of repressing it."
|
|
Decatur
Alabama Daily
|
| |
|
"A
compelling account of how the last battle
of the Civil War came to be fought . .
. vivid, appalling . . . the most heroic
figure was James Meredith. Doyle's portrait
of this strange, almost quixotically courageous
man is one of the best things in the book
. . . precise and evocative . . . the
book is valuable in reminding us of an
event that today seems to be largely forgotten
. . . it was one of the great turning
points of the civil rights movement: If
Mississippi could be desegregated, any
place could."
|
|
San
Jose Mercury News
|
| |
|
"Mr.
Doyle's research has uncovered disturbing
information. Although by that time the
military had been desegregated for nearly
14 years, President John Kennedy and Attorney
General Robert Kennedy, acting in secret,
approved a plan to pre-segregate 4,000
black US army troops out of the mission
– the mission to guarantee blacks
their civil rights . . . Doyle interviewed
black and white army vets who recalled
their disbelief at this disgraceful abuse
of power. One black sergeant of the 101st
Airborne relayed the order to his men
with tears in his eyes, according to Doyle.
While at Ft. Bragg, white officers of
the 503rd Military Police Battalion tore
up the order and threw it in the trash."
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|
Rush
Limbaugh
|
| |
|
"Intriguingly,
the book contains FBI and Pentagon documents
detailing a surprise raid on Oct. 1, 1962,
by troops of the 716th Military Police
Battalion on the Sigma Nu house, the fraternity
presided over by chapter President Trent
Lott, currently the U.S. Senate's minority
leader from Mississippi. Inside the frat
house, the MPs seized and removed a total
of 24 weapons: 21 shotguns, a .22 rifle,
a .30 rifle and a .22 Colt pistol. Mr.
Lott, who declined to be interviewed by
the author, had no immediate comment when
we rang yesterday."
|
|
The
Washington Times
|
