In "Waging a Good War," Thomas E. Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, delivers an extraordinary new examination of the Civil Rights Movement, casting it through the lens of military strategy and discipline. This groundbreaking narrative reveals how the nonviolent resistance championed by iconic figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., was underpinned by the rigorous principles of warfare—recruitment, training, discipline, and organization. Ricks, leveraging his expertise as a war correspondent, argues convincingly that the movement's most significant victories were not merely the result of idealistic fervor but were achieved through strategic and organized efforts akin to a military campaign. Through vivid storytelling, Ricks escorts readers from the bus boycotts of Montgomery to the pivotal marches in Memphis, showcasing how the philosophy of nonviolence adopted by the movement was anything but passive. It was, instead, a form of active resistance that directly confronted adversaries with calculated boldness. The author shines a light on well-known heroes like Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis, while also bringing attention to the unsung strategists of nonviolence such as James Lawson, James Bevel, Diane Nash, and Septima Clark, whose roles were crucial in molding nonviolence into an effective weapon. As Ricks delves into the internal conflicts and the intensification of white backlash, "Waging a Good War" emerges as a pivotal work, offering new insights into the civil rights struggle and proposing essential lessons for contemporary movements for racial justice and social change.