Zucchino offers a gripping account of one of the most disturbing, though virtually unknown, political events in American history … a grim but fascinating story, and an instructive one … Mr. Zucchino welds probing research and a crisp writing style into a dramatic rendering of events, and he goes on to show their ramifications for African-Americans across the South … Mr. Zucchino’s narrative toggles skillfully between the city’s black community and the activities of the white insurrectionists … Thanks to Mr. Zucchino’s unflinching account, we now have the full, appalling story. As befits a grave journalist, he avoids polemics and lets events speak for themselves … it is books such as these, not least Wilmington’s Lie, that have redeemed the truth of post-Civil War history from the tenacious mythology of racism.
