Book Review: Waging a Good War: How the Civil Rights Movement Won Its Battles, 1954–1968

Authors

Keith Nightingale

Files

Description

Author: Thomas E. Ricks

Reviewed by Keith Nightingale, retired colonel, US Army

Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks frames the American civil rights movement in terms of a (nonviolent) war, examining the leadership, strategy, and tactics required for success. Ricks also discusses the postwar-like effects the movement had on its participants (such as PTSD), which reviewer Colonel Keith Nightingale (US Army, retired) calls "the most poignant matter in the book." Nightingale also praises the work as "a highly readable dissection of the movement" and "a history of the first order."

Publication Date

2-22-2024

Keywords

civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., leadership, tactics, American society

Disciplines

Defense and Security Studies

Recommended Citation

Keith Nightingale, Book Review: Waging a Good War: How the Civil Rights Movement Won Its Battles, 1954–1968 ( US Army War College Press, 2024),
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters_bookshelf/36