The evolution of SNCC is interesting because it began almost by
             accident but ended up having a profound effect not only on the Civil Rights
             movement but on multiple movements for change in the United States during
             that time, including the growing movement to protest the United State's
             involvement in Viet Nam. The book also makes an important point about
             historical movements: no one group will have all the answers any more than
             any one person will have all the answers. While Martin Luther King and his
             group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, tends to get most of
             the credit for gaining civil rights for all, they did not do it alone, and
             sometimes SNCC's contributions -- both in their actions and in their
             evolving philosophy -- were crucial.
             The book is divided into three major parts: "Coming Together,"
             "Looking Inward," and "Falling Apart." As the author analyzes the actions
             and thought processes of those involved in SNCC, he reveals a much more
             three-dimensional picture of the group than people might otherwise be aware
             of. While the SNCC ended up promoting ideas that were much more radical
             and confrontational than those of SCLC, those who shaped the group's
             philosophy were thoughtful, determined people, not just angry young
             firebrands ready to lash back at a system that had wronged them. The word
             "non-violent" in their name is not double-talk. They started out embracing
             a non-violent approach to ending segregation in the south (eventually
             focusing more on voter registration) and only accepted confrontation as
             part of their strategy when they realized that non-violence by itself would
             In the first section, "Coming Together," the author describes the
             first student sit-in at a lunch counter. Early in February of 1960, four
             Black students from a Black college in Greensboro, North Carolina, walked
             into a Woolworth's lunch counter and sat down. This was...