Waging a Good War

A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968

By: Thomas E. Ricks

Narrated by: JD Jackson

This program is read by multiple-award-winning narrator JD Jackson.

#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks offers a new take on the civil rights movement, stressing its unexpected use of military strategy and its lessons for nonviolent resistance around the world.

In Waging a Good War, bestselling author Thomas E. Ricks offers a fresh perspective on America’s greatest moral revolution—the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s—and its legacy today. While the movement has become synonymous with Martin Luther King Jr.’s ethos of nonviolence, Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize–winning war reporter, draws on his deep knowledge of tactics and strategy to note the surprising affinities between that ethos and the organized pursuit of success at war. The greatest victories for Black Americans of the past century, he stresses, were won not by idealism alone, but by paying attention to recruiting, training, discipline, and organization—the hallmarks of any successful military campaign.

An engaging storyteller, Ricks deftly narrates the movement’s triumphs and defeats. He follows King and other key figures from Montgomery to Memphis, demonstrating that Gandhian nonviolence was a philosophy of active, not passive, resistance – involving the bold and sustained confrontation of the Movement’s adversaries, both on the ground and in the court of public opinion. While bringing legends such as Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis into new focus, Ricks also highlights lesser-known figures who played critical roles in fashioning nonviolence into an effective tool—the activists James Lawson, James Bevel, Diane Nash, and Septima Clark foremost among them. He also offers a new understanding of the Movement’s later difficulties as internal disputes and white backlash intensified. Rich with fresh interpretations of familiar events and overlooked aspects of America’s civil rights struggle, Waging a Good War is an indispensable addition to the literature of racial justice and social change—and one that offers vital lessons for our own time.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2022 Thomas E. Ricks (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"The greatest value of this compelling account lies in its capacity to remind us how a relatively small group of intelligent, determined, disciplined and incredibly courageous men and women managed after barely a decade of pitched battles to transform the US 'into a genuine democracy' for the very first time . . . Ricks does a tremendous job of putting the reader inside the hearts and souls of the young men and women who risked so much to change America . . . Riveting." —Charles Kaiser, The Guardian

"Innovative and provocative . . . [Waging a Good War's] novel military framing [. . .] allows Ricks to offer engaging reappraisals of some civil rights figures . . . Ricks wisely and consistently highlights the important tensions and cleavages that existed within the civil rights movement itself . . . Powerful." —Justin Driver, The New York Times Book Review

"[A] vigorous retelling of what historians have come to call the [civil rights] movement’s 'classic phase' . . . An intriguing analogy swept along by Ricks’s impressive storytelling skills." —Kevin Boyle, The Washington Post

I had no idea, being white and privileged

This book was an eye-opener to me, and I am so glad that I listened to this book. it exposed a whole world to me of the black experience. I am a middle-class white privileged boy from Utah. I went to school with all white kids till I graduated from high school. I am greatfull to this new perspective and will work on being a better human.

I am sorry the pain my race caused people of color, we must do better.

Revised The Times

Yeah I remember the struggles my mom trying to educate the people she worked with in Wilson and Elm City North Carolina when she told the white man he cheated the black sharecroper of change. They tried to kill her but they run her out of town.Great book of the truth.

Powerful and honest.

The author creates a powerful and honest parallel between the human rights struggle in America and military campaigns - a work this is as poignant as it is unforgettable.

Great study of history

the insights in the story about the history of the civil Rights movement are amazing

Learned an enormous amount

As a Marine veteran, the context of the review was absolutely superb for me to understand the complexity and focus of the movement. Strongly recommend this book and have shared it with several friends already.

Great book from a skilled war historian.

Ricks frames the Civil Rights movement as an action that spanned decades and continues, but strategized as if it were a war. He makes good arguments and backs them up with copious background and historical evidence. Understanding the movement as a war strategy is critical to measuring whether it has been effective or not. He makes clear that the work isn’t finished, but details success and progress in a way that should give readers optimism, despite what they’ll hear in the news and on social media. Very worthwhile study.

Moving account of Civil Right Movement.

Engaging account of the civil rights movement. A nice wrap up with pointing out how the BLM I
is alike and different. Hearing about the lesser known figures was a treat.

I was born and raised in Alabama. Jim Crow Era.

I remember George Wallace inaugural address on Segregation. I was 13 years old. my heart ❤️ felt like a cold steel stab my heart.
Bull Connor turns on his dogs and BFD fire hoses on young Black students. I lived 48 miles south east from Birmingham. Sylacauga was the transfer hubs for Trail way BusTerminal points South.
The saddest Month was September 16th Baptist Church Bombing where young Girls were killed attending Sunday School.
These So called white Christians ✝️ hiding behind a sheet with cut out known as KKK MURDEREDS INNOCENT CHRISTIAN CHILDREN ✝️.

The Sixties

I was a child during this history. This book refreshed my memories and reminded me of the energy of the time period. Younger folks ask me to describe my insights of that time. Now I have a book to direct them too. This is a great addition to other books This is the best I have read so far. A must read. Thank you Thomas Ricks!

Great perspective of the Civil Rights Movement

I can’t recommend this enough. As a military veteran Rick’s examination of the movement as a military campaign and it effects on the people that carried it out and the country that benefited from it are spot on.