PositiveThe Chicago TribuneBlood at the Root provides a fascinating glimpse into how Forsyth County, a farming region in the red clay of the northern Georgia mountains, managed to stave off racial progress despite being only about 40 miles away from Atlanta, the base of operations for civil rights warrior Martin Luther King Jr ... Blood at the Root does an admirable job of piecing together its history based on research and with too few surviving figures. Phillips can be forgiven if some of the narration and character development, in the absence of firsthand accounts, is gathered largely from newspaper reports of the day ... Phillips' book feels timely, unapologetically discussing the way fear, panic, ignorance and timing may have kept Forsyth County trapped in the past.
