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Title: The Children by David Halberstam ISBN: 0-449-00439-2 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.86 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Social history told with the sweep of an epic novel.
Comment: No one writes the stories of big historical or social movements better than David Halberstam, and "The Children" is no exception. As readers of his other "big" books ("The Best and the Brightest," "The Powers That Be," "The Reckoning," "The Fifties") would expect, Halberstam chooses to tell the story of the budding civil rights movement not from the standpoint of the leaders, like M. L. King or Medgar Evers, but from the standpoint of the peacetime footsoldiers, who rallied the people and took the blows (literally) that ultimately ended segregation in the South. As always, Halberstam's prose is impeccable: intelligent, literate, witty, and above all, imbued with a deep and abiding sense of humanity. The young people in his story are heroes, but they're also people, and he makes us see them as such, with all their doubts, fears, and conflicting emotions. It's hard to think of a nearly 800 page book as a thriller, but I would dare anyone to read the first two sentences of Halberstam's Prologue and NOT feel the power of a master storyteller taking hold. To read "The Children" is to be reminded, and charged, by the power of democracy to achieve social change, and it is also to grieve, a bit, at how little has been achieved in the last twenty years.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Important, Compelling Story of Overlooked Heroes
Comment: Civil rights has been THE major domestic story of the last 50 years. and has thus figured prominently in David Halberstam's historical books. Black players and their respective teams' treatment of them provided the drama in "October 1964," and the seismic "Brown" decision and its aftermath inspired some of the finest chapters in "The Fifties."
"The Children" finds Halberstam focusing completely (more than 80 chapters over 700 pages) to the lives and deeds of young college students who broke the back of Deep South segregation. Drawing on a novelist's drama and a reporter's detail (Halberstam covered those first Nashville sit-ins) he creates a near-Biblical (in quality and length) liberation story.
Comparisons to dramatic Biblical episodes abound in "The Children." Compare leader Jim Lawson's meeting with Dr. King to Moses' being commanded to lead his people from Egypt. Compare Jesus' choosing of his first disciples to Lawson, who brought and taught young men and women, black and white, to nonviolently integrate the South's lunch counters, interstate buses, and finally their voting booths. Compare Paul and Silas' prison terms with those the students suffered in legendary prisons like Mississippi's Parchman Farm.
The analogy extends to personalities, where Halberstam does some of his finest, fairest writing. Compare the most violent Biblical villains to Halberstam's Southern Goliaths: sheriffs Bull Connor and Jim Clark, newspaper editor Jimmy Stahlman. Compare the bombastic, emotional apostle Peter to Jim Bevel, the rock-steady Martha to activist Diane Nash, the money-grubbing Judas to the fall of Washington mayor Marion Barry. The story has its prodigals also, from a federal government moving from silent aggravation to active protection of "the Movement," to even the Vanderbilt college president who repented of releasing Lawson from divinity school. Unlike TV reporting of the movement, which covered its characters as noble heroes opposing violent cartoon buffoons, Halberstam equally chronicles the reasons and motivations of his story's heroes and villains.
The book (and Movement's) climax comes with the Voting Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The story then fractures between accounts of a fraying movement after King's death to members personal lives, with less dramatic effect. Some live in near-poverty (Nash) or make fortunes (Hank Thomas). Some lead congregations (Lawson) or go to prison for their own misdoings(Barry). Some marry and lead satisfied, if not completely happy lives (Curtis Murphy) or question their sexuality and reach a reasonable balance (Rodney Powell). But, as many do, they compare relatively mundane lives with the exciting accomplishments of youth, with a collective "Now what?" for a response.
Overall, "The Children" despite occasional redundancy and lyrical flab, remains an essential look at an often overlooked part of American history. Anyone questioning the usefulness of voting, or why they should register, MUST read the middle portion (Book II) of "The Children."
Rating: 5
Summary: Noble Children, The Pride Of Our Nation, & Their Mission.
Comment: David Halberstam has written an epic history of the young men and women, most still in their teens, who had the courage and nobility of spirit to fight the unjust status quo of segregation, and change the course of our nation's history. This is the story of the civil rights movement in the United States, beginning in the late 1950s and reaching its height in the mid-1960s. The story is told from the eyes of these young people - it is the history they made. "The Children" frequently put their lives on the line, risking physical danger and even death, to join the non-violent protests that would give all Americans equal rights under the law.
The Movement's leaders were two black southern ministers, both strongly influenced by the teachings of Mahandas Gandhi. These two men, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jim Lawson, designed the framework of the mission. They stratagized like generals waging a unique war. Young college students, mostly African Americans, whose parents had sacrificed much to send them to university, were recruited as soldiers. These vulnerable and committed students were schooled in the nonviolent tradition, with workshops, such as: "Justice Without Violence" and "The New Negro In The New South." We meet these children and hear of their experiences in Nashville, Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, and many other towns and small cities all over the South. Halberstam documents the background of these young troops, their families, and struggles, growing up Black in America. He movingly describes the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the terrible violence of the Klan, and of ordinary citizens, steeped in bigotry, that endangered all of them. We read about the voter registration campaigns, and the founding of SNCC and CORE. The moral, philosophical and political roots of the civil rights movement, and the divisiveness within the group as different ideologies emerged, are well documented, as is the death of Dr. King.
Halberstam draws an amazing portrait of Jim Lawson, whose fervor and dedication moved a generation of Americans to action. The author truly excels, however, in bringing to life the young people whose story this is. We are updated, toward the end of the book, on the lives of the young activists today. This incredibly moving history reads like a novel you don't want to put down. And while we read about a most shameful period in our nation's history, who can fail to be proud of the young citizens who took action to make such important changes?
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Title: The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam ISBN: 0449908704 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 26 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: PARTING THE WATERS by Taylor Branch ISBN: 0671687425 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1989 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by Juan Williams ISBN: 0140096531 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis, Michael D'Orso ISBN: 0156007088 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 18 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Fifties by DAVID HALBERSTAM ISBN: 0449909336 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 10 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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