The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss - Tapa dura

[A] monumental work of scholarship. . . . Completely surpasses other accounts of the desegregation of the University of Mississippi. . . . An indispensable volume that deserves a prominent place on the crowded shelves of civil rights scholarship. . . . Fluently written, rich in informative new evidence, and illuminating on both the individual actors in the drama and the broader institutional dynamics of Mississippi politics and education.--Journal of Southern History This now stands as the definitive account of this seminal moment in the struggle for racial equality.--The Historian Simply put, this is the best study of this dramatic episode we have. . . . An invaluable contribution to our understanding of an important, complex, arguably pivotal moment in American history.--History News Network [A] definitive history of James H. Meredith's 1962 violent integration of the all-white university. . . . Provides a perspective only a dedicated historian can do, tapping deeply into sources, files and unknown documents to bring alive one of the historical civil rights moments of the 20th century.--Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Eagles's work is extraordinarily well researched. . . . The resulting narrative provides an important picture for readers today of the ugliness and hypocrisy of segregation through one individual's valiant effort to end it.--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society With painstaking research and detail, Eagles explores the university's history, from its founding in 1848 as an alternative to Northern universities, where students might be exposed to abolitionist ideas. . . . Traces the legal and political standoff before Meredith's first day on campus and the university's eventual confrontation, with the fatal riot that ensued.--Publishers Weekly A fine book. Calm, thorough, and patient, deeply researched and subtly argued.--Journal of American History A compelling . . . addition to an underdeveloped field of history. . . . Worthy of reading for those interested in the American history of interracial relationships.--Arkansas Review Well-researched and thoroughly detailed, The Price of Defiance is a valuable study of one [of] the most influential episodes in American Civil Rights history....Well-written and engaging, this piece of modern biography is an accomplishment in the fields of Southern and Civil Rights history." --Southern Historian While there have been previous studies of this period, Charles W. Eagles had access to previously unavailable federal and state records, and personal records.--Inside Higher Ed Never before has this tale of legal and physical skirmishing been told in such detail. . . . Thoroughly researched and clearly written.--American Historical Review Eagles places the events of the fall of 1962 in the context of the times. . . . His narrative description of the years leading up to 1960 should be required reading for every Mississippi high school senior. . . . Nuanced, fully researched, comprehensive, and written in a way that conveys the immediacy of the events.--Jackson Free Press Eagles' goal of presenting the wide context of Meredith's fight doesn't prevent him from giving readers a gripping rendition of the events that followed.--Chapter16.org A suitably landmark volume for a deservedly landmark event in the civil rights movement.--Arkansas Review The product of a prodigious scholarly effort. . . . Will no doubt be considered by many to be the definitive account of the Meredith story. . . . A work of enormous scholarship that fills in the details of a turning point in the civil rights movement.--Review of Politics The Price of Defiance will no doubt be considered by many to be the definitive account of the Meredith story....It is a work of enormous scholarship that fills in the details of a turning point in the civil rights movement.--The Review of Politics To appreciate Meredith's struggle, one must situate him in the culture of 1960s Mississippi, effectively re-created by Eagles, who details the university's segregated way of life regarding everything from sports to beauty pageants while also meticulously presenting the court proceedings.--Library Journal

When James Meredith enrolled as the first African American student at the University of Mississippi in 1962, the resulting riots produced more casualties than any other clash of the civil rights era. Eagles shows that the violence resulted from the university's and the state's long defiance of the civil rights movement and federal law. Ultimately, the price of such behaviour--the price of defiance--was not only the murderous riot that rocked the nation and almost closed the university but also the nation's enduring scorn for Ole Miss and Mississippi. Eagles paints a remarkable portrait of Meredith himself by describing his unusual family background, his personal values, and his service in the U.S. Air Force, all of which prepared him for his experience at Ole Miss.