Reviews:
“Original and uncommonly thoughtful. . . . This is a comprehensive, imaginative, fair-minded and perceptive book, a significant contribution to our understanding of those men and women who fought those terrible wars in what seems so long ago but was, in fact, only yesterday.”
—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
“With vivid description and chilling analysis, Marsh evokes the violence and oppression in the South of the civil-rights era…. Many will find the results haunting…. Marsh’s work speaks directly to the development of our own moral lives.”
—Randy Frame, Christianity Today
“Marsh’s slice of history is imperative reading for understanding the religious foundations of social movements.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Through Marsh’s heartfelt and incisive chronicle, the turmoil and acrimony that were abundant in the U.S. more than three decades ago lend a revealing perspective to numerous current situations of racial and ethnic discord.”
—Nachman Spiegel, Jerusalem Post
“A work of humane engagement and dispassionate scholarship.”
—John White, The Times Higher Education Supplement
“The history and internal politics of the Civil Rights Movement and of the groups defending white-controlled segregation come alive in these detail-filled narratives.”
—Choice
“Marsh describes the faulty logic and errant principles of most of the actors . . . with compassion and remarkable restraint. . . . He presents a fresh and inspiring story of faith in action and, perhaps, a view of God’s hand in human history.”
—Gary Dorsey, Christian Century
“Marsh celebrates the importance of Christian faith in founding the civil rights movement, [exploring] as well the devastating dichotomy of hate and prejudice.”
—Andrew Young, Former Ambassador to the United Nations
“Mississippi Freedom Summer tested my commitment and my faith…. To this day, I wonder how those who opposed us reconciled their faith with their hatred and their anger or even their inaction. [Marsh] admirably attempts to explore this unfathomable paradox.”
—John Lewis, Member of Congress, 5th District, Georgia
“This wonderfully narrated book offers truths about the civil rights struggle of the 1960s often overlooked-the intensely moral and spiritual side of an effort that had an enormous impact on our secular life. Here is the deeply stirring truth of faith-becomes-action in exemplary lives!”
—Robert Coles, University Health Services, Harvard University