America on Fire

March 22, 2021
America’s seasons of unrest were an understandable response to a racist police state, according to this impassioned history. Yale historian Hinton (From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime) surveys smaller-scale Black “rebellions” that erupted from 1968 to 1972 in towns like Cairo, Ill.; York, Pa.; and Alexandria, Va., along with the 1980 Miami uprising, the 1992 Los Angeles riot, and recent Black Lives Matter protests. Her narrative elucidates a common cycle of escalation: abrasive or violent police intrusions attracted rock-throwing Black crowds, then police—and sometimes allied white vigilantes—imposed brutal crackdowns that provoked looting, firebombings, and gunfire. She paints rebellions as a militant form of civil rights activism that sought “structural change” and “community control of resources,” and castigates policymakers who responded with anticrime measures that inflamed tensions rather than providing jobs, education, and housing. Hinton presents a strong case that harsh policing and systemic disadvantages sparked violence, but she downplays antipolice violence, including sniper fire aimed at officers, and doesn’t fully reckon with the economic damage rebellions caused to Black communities. The result is a searing yet one-sided history. Photos. Agent: Adam Eaglin, the Cheney Agency.

April 15, 2021
Thought-provoking examination of "the cycle," whereby minority protests against police brutality beget only more violence. Yale historian Hinton focuses largely on Black communities. Early on, she recounts the history of lynch mobs across the country, reacting to Black advances in economic well-being and civil rights through armed violence, "a means to police the activities of Black people and to limit their access to jobs, leisure, franchise and to the political sphere." In time, police forces came to do this work, and the result, "especially between 1968 and 1972," was "internal violence on a scale not seen since the Civil War." In a pattern all too familiar to minority citizens and, after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, to everyone with the means to see, the police typically react with more violence when some previous act of their violence is called into question. This is in some measure, by Hinton's account, because of easily exploited calls on the parts of politicians and some voters for "law and order," which in turn hinges on White fears "that Black people might rise up in violence," fears that began with the first enslaved Black person on the continent. The cycle of public rebellions begins, as the author sharply describes it, with the police interfering with some ordinary activity, whether skateboarding or drinking in a park, and then confronting other young people who arrive to aid their peers. That cycle, Hinton persuasively argues, "began with the police." Here she quotes James Baldwin, who noted that police rampaged minority communities "like an occupying soldier in a bitterly hostile country." Among Hinton's many villains are one-time Florida state's attorney Janet Reno, who declined to prosecute "police officers who violently attacked or killed Black residents." Other attorneys have followed suit to this day--and so, Hinton's well-reasoned and emphatically argued book has it, the cycle continues and shows no signs of abating. A must-read for all concerned with civil rights and social justice in modern America.

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April 15, 2021
In the 1960s and 1970s, American cities experienced extreme violence. Often called riots, these events are more accurately understood as rebellions. In America on Fire, political historian Hinton explores the origins and outcomes of Black rebellions of the twentieth century. While many uprisings were tied to acts of police brutality, many occurred after ongoing surveillance and harassment in under-resourced Black communities. In cities across the country, Black residents experienced years of ongoing violence at the hands of police and white vigilante groups. After uprisings, community leaders repeatedly requested access to resources and freedom from over-policing. Cities and state governments often reacted by dismissing concerns entirely, offering unfulfilled promises, and further militarizing the police. Despite investigations that highlighted root causes in white racism and disinvestment in Black communities, little changed in the 1980s and 1990s. Hinton masterfully examines multiple incidents across the country, illustrating not only the prevalence of rebellions but how ongoing violent racial discrimination is horrifically common. As Hinton links the history of rebellion to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, readers will be struck by the generational echoes of Black Americans' struggle for justice.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from April 16, 2021

Between 1964 and 1972, the United States experienced various levels of violence and civic unrest, the effects of which continue to shape the country today. Hinton (history, African American studies, Yale; From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime) persuasively argues that this violence is best understood as a rebellion against police brutality and entrenched racism and inequality, while people were also seeking better housing, employment, educational opportunities, and police reforms. Anti-crime legislation pumped millions of federal dollars into law enforcement agencies, which allowed police departments to modernize equipment and acquire military-grade weaponry and vehicles. Violent policing towards Black communities attracted large demonstrations in places like Cairo, IL, which Hinton argues led to more violence between the police, their white supporters, and Black people. Hinton traces the legacy of Black rebellion through 2020, including recent protests over police officers killing Black people. This penetrating and incisive account of Black rebellion is based on extensive primary research, particularly from the archives of the Lemberg Center for Study of Violence. VERDICT Readers interested in social movements in the United States, past or present, will not want to miss this illuminating work.--Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH

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