A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History with Jeanne Theoharis

Jeanne Theoharis debunks contemporary imaginings of the civil rights movement in her new book, A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History. By showing how the movement was unpopular, disruptive, coast-to-coast, leader-full, and courageously persevering in its time, Theoharis challenges exceptionalist narratives of American democracy that place the civil rights movement firmly in the past and calls attention to the crucial work that remains to be done. Jeanne Theoharis is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College.