"Telling the fascinating story of the Little Rock crisis in wonderful detail, this book mines newspapers, personal papers, memoirs, interviews, and more, for the background behind the headlines. The interweaving of many perspectives allows readers to see this story as fluid rather than static: Anderson tracks the progress and backtracking, the ambivalence of southern moderates, the development of political networks, as well as the gains and losses. This is an important story."--Cheryl Greenberg, Trinity College

"This book takes as its subject one of the seminal chapters in the history of the modern civil rights movement, the struggle to integrate the public schools of Little Rock, Arkansas. Filled with fascinating characters, it is a story replete with drama and quiet triumph."--Jerald E. Podair, Lawrence University

Karen Anderson is professor emeritus of history at the University of Arizona. She is the author of Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II and coauthor of Present Tense: The United States since 1945.