Review A well-researched contribution to the history of the civil rights and Black Power movements, arguing that the role of self-defense in the modern civil rights struggle has been misunderstood. Like John Dittmer, Charles Payne, Adam Fairclough, and Timothy Tyson, Christopher Strain gives attention to the local people who were the backbone of the civil rights struggle, transcending the grand narrative that focuses on national leaders and national organizations. (Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar author of Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity)Those of us who were participants in the 1960s freedom struggle will find Christopher Strain's Pure Fire a critical and significant contribution to the annals of the civil rights movement literature and history. All students of history, African American history, and civil rights history must read this important new book. Pure Fire is a valuable expansion to the historiography of the freedom struggle. (Cleveland L. Sellers Jr. Director of African American Studies, University of South Carolina)In Pure Fire, Christopher Strain has connected nonviolence and self-defense and the freedom struggle for the first time. Generations of students and historians will welcome his accomplishment in explaining their origins, similarities, and differences. (Julian Bond Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)Strain deserves praise for forcing historians to reconsider traditional interpretations of the Civil Rights Movement by putting self-defense at the center of the story . . . Christopher Strain has written an important study, which is likely to spur further work on this complex subject. (Journal of African American History)By linking armed self-defense to the broader struggle for black citizenship rights at the time, [Strain] recasts it as an end in itself, rather than merely a tactical means to other ends, like voting rights, economic opportunity, or the cessation of police brutality . . . The chief value of Pure Fire is as a synthesis of the existing, scattered literature on armed self-defense during the civil rights era . . . Strain's synthesis is a welcome addition to the literature and should find an audience among beginning and intermediate-level undergraduates as well as those new to the issue. (Register of the Kentucky Historical Society)The book succeeds brilliantly in its combination of intellectual, cultural, and social history . . . this is an important book on an essential history . . . many college professors will welcome these 254 pages as a useful and insightful teaching tool for courses on civil rights history. (Journal of American History)Strain skillfully traces the evolution of self-defense, from its antebellum incarnations to its ultimate collapse as a viable tactic by the 1970s . . . well-researched work . . . Strain has made an important contribution to civil rights historiography and our understanding of the movement's many sides. (Arkansas Historical Quarterly) Read more About the Author Christopher B. Strain is an associate professor of history and American studies at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. Read more
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