Waging a Good War

In this book, Thomas E. Ricks offers a new take on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, emphasizing the unexpected use of military strategy and its lessons for nonviolent resistance.

Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter, draws on his deep knowledge of tactics and strategy to argue that the greatest victories for Black Americans were won not by idealism alone, but by attention to recruiting, training, discipline, and organization.

The book follows key figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and John Lewis, and highlights lesser-known activists such as James Lawson, James Bevel, Diane Nash, and Septima Clark.

It demonstrates that Gandhian nonviolence was a philosophy of active, not passive, resistance and offers vital lessons for social change and confronting attacks on democracy today.