A More Beautiful and Terrible History

This “bracing corrective to national mythology” around the American civil rights movement “shows us how little we remember, and how much more there is to understand ” ( New York Times ). “Theoharis’s view of history is expansive” as it reveals the diverse, unsung heroes of the movement and criticizes the oversimplification of complex figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. ( O Magazine ). The civil rights movement has become national legend, lauded by presidents from Reagan to Obama to Trump, as pr