Parting the Waters: America in thenKing Years, 1954-63nby Taylor BranchnNew York: Simon & Schuster;n1064 pp., $24.95nMagisterial works of history arenalmost always informed by antragic sense of life. Some recall epochalntransformations that were as lamentablenas they were inescapable. Still othersndramatize the clash of two valid, butnirreconcilable, principles. Among thenlatter, certainly, are the best recreationsnof our own Civil War, and especiallynthe slavery controversy. The peculiarninstitution was indeed a moral evil, butnthat does not nullify the counter assertionnthat Allen Tate made in his biographynof Stonewall Jackson. “The institutionnof slavery was a positive good onlynin the sense that Calhoun had arguednLee Congdon is a professor of historynat James Madison University innHarrisburg, Virginia.n34/CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnRoots of Radicalismnby Lee Congdonn’The purity of a revolution can last a fortnight.”n— Jean Cocteaunthat it was: it had become a necessarynelement in a stable society.” In the end,nwe know, the imperative proved to bencategorical, but the consequent socialndislocation was a bitter harvest for allnAmericans, Northern and Southern,nwhite and black.nI can only regret that Taylor Branch,nthe author of this impressively researchednand gracefully written historynof the early civil rights movement, lacksnthe tragic sense. A latter-day abolitionist,nhe recognizes no difficulties in thencrusade to end segregation. Nowhere inna long narrative does he make thenslightest eflFort to understand thosenwhose fears and warnings cannot easilynbe dismissed as the spoiled fruits ofndishonor. Nor does he display any patiencenfor those who counseled prudencenand a rneasured pace of change.nFor him, white moderates were cynicalnbigots, while older “Negroes” and leadersnof the NAACP were pusillanimousnquislings. “Hierarchical,” “timid,” andn”inert” are only some of the adjectivesnBranch trots out to discredit that venera­nnnble organization and its director, RoynWilkins. Indeed, he sees little practicalndifference between Wilkins, a man ofndignity and intelligence, and the vilestnof segregationists.nAnd make no mistake about it, manyndefenders of Jim Crow were barefaced.nBranch rehearses in unsparing detailntheir unspeakable actions: intimidation,nbeatings, murders. In the accompanyingnphotographs, one can see hatrednand mockery staring out from behindnthe eyes of those caught at the verynmoment they were tormenting theirnpassive and defenseless fellow citizens.nState and local officials were, if possible,neven worse, and Branch calls them backnto play their ignoble roles once more:nRoss Bamett blocking James Meredithnfrom the door to Ole Miss; GeorgenWallace appealing to the baser instinctsnof Alabamans; Bull Connor creating annatmosphere in which the bombing of anchurch filled with women and childrenncould be mistaken for a heroic deed. NonChristian, no decent American, canncondone or excuse such outrages.n