An American Insurrection

James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962

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by William Doyle

Bantam Doubleday Dell

Due/Published January 2003, 416 pages, paper

ISBN 0385499701

New in paper (S03)

An American Insurrection is the true story of the worst constitutional crisis since the Civil War and a major turning point in American history. It takes readers into the eye of the chaotic and ferocious white uprising that occurred when air force veteran James Meredith tried to become the first black student to register at the University of Mississippi, only to be physically blocked by radical segregationist Governor Ross Barnett, hundreds of state police, and thousands of student and civilian "volunteers" from across the South. The revolt climaxed in a fourteen-hour battle and the lightning invasion of the state by 30,000 combat troops ordered in by President John F. Kennedy.

Based on years of intensive research, including more than 500 interviews with witnesses and key players in the drama, recently unsealed FBI files, and on JFK's Oval Office and Cabinet Room tapes recorded during the crisis, An American Insurrection unearths the unsung heroesÐand more than a few villainsÐof a dark and violent event that has remained mostly buried in the historical shadows. It is the account of a governor in rebellion, a president in crisis, soldiers on a perilous mission, a state sliding into civil war.