We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was riveting. I couldn't put it down, told with so many primary sources in such a way as to evoke the humanity of each of the key moments. Full of basic outline information I had heard many times before, but with all the empty space in between filled in.
The book is very spare on visuals, which is interesting. There must be mountains of visuals, but maybe still under copyright and difficult to get permissions without great expense. Still, those chosen are powerful and well-suited to the moments and chapters they are in. The story moves like a gripping page-turner anyway, so I didn't mind the thicker text.
Because each chapter is broken up graphically into episodes with a subheader and divider, there is encouragement to browse. I browsed around a lot at first, and then found myself reading whole swathes of the book in order. So I liked how the structure allowed the freedom of browsing, but then drew me in.
The quote-sourcing is thorough and complete, which seems typical for this kind of book. I'm realizing that this style of sourcing seems to come from a journalistic ethic of sources, and so I am thinking it comes from that tradition in writing. It's also good historiography.
While I am sure some of the bibliographic items listed for further information would be helpful, because this book relies so heavily on primary sources I always want to be guided directly to the places online where I can see these.
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