Civil Rights, Culture Wars

“Eagles’s imaginative recovery of a civil rights moment informs readers about the accomplishment of two courageous professors from Tougaloo and Millsaps Colleges. . . . Congratulations to Eagles and the University of North Carolina Press on their splendid achievement in this pathbreaking publication. Essential.” — CHOICE

“Eagles] builds his narrative around primary sources. . . . He not only sets the stage for the story, he gives us succinct biographical information on the players.” — Jackson Clarion-Ledger

“Eagles helps us recognize the significance of . . . cultural action through his detailed and clearly written account of the conflicts over Mississippi: Conflict and Change.” — Educational Policy

“Eagles deserves our gratitude for bringing a landmark case back into the limelight.” — American Historical Review

“Civil Rights, Culture Wars . . . recounts the production and controversy over Conflict and Change. . . . Eagles’s richly detailed account of the textbook’s history demonstrates that the debates over historical content ultimately were also struggles over social control and identity.”—Journal of African American History

“This is a fascinating account of the controversy surrounding the publication of the textbook Mississippi: Conflict and Change. Though it was pathbreaking in its treatment of race and the inclusion of African American history, no one has really told this story—certainly not in the detail on display here—and by putting this seemingly small event into a larger context, Eagles, like the textbook itself, significantly broadens our understanding of Mississippi history.”—Charles C. Bolton, author of William F. Winter and the New Mississippi: A Biography

“Civil Rights, Culture Wars is a wonderful contribution to the history of education, revealing how textbooks and curriculums are often the result of a hidden political process that involves multiple sets of actors with different—and at times opposing—ideological and educational positions. In studying the controversial life of this ninth-grade Mississippi history textbook, Eagles masterfully shows us how this process operates over time, shining a spotlight on the role of the ‘state’ in defining what can and cannot be taught in the classroom.”—Michael W. Apple, author of Official Knowledge