RaveThe New York Times... an exhaustive journey through both the segregationist and integrationist sides of Birmingham\'s struggle ... expertly follows the tangled threads of culpability until they reveal what she calls \'the long tradition of enmeshment between law enforcers and Klansmen,\' which included the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the state and city police. [McWhorter\'s] precision in filling in the particulars of that collaboration contributes significantly to the historical record ... As a journalist, McWhorter is impressive at gathering facts and sourcing them precisely; her endnotes alone run 70 pages. She piles particulars on top of one another in narratives and portraits that are often compelling and artfully drawn, but not always. At times, the themes are lost in dizzying detail, the trees overwhelm the forest. The huge cast of famous characters and bit players, intricately intertwined, makes Tolstoy seem like easy reading. So determined is she to let the facts speak for themselves -- an increasingly rare virtue in journalism -- that she forfeits some opportunities to summarize, analyze and clarify. In other words, she makes the reader do a good deal of work, which is occasionally annoying but very much worth the effort ... McWhorter has a keen eye for hypocrisy, even among the good guys.
