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From Sit-Ins to SNCC: The Student Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Edited by Iwan Morgan and Philip Davies. (Gainesville and other cities: University Press of Florida, 2012. Pp. [xiv], 200. $69.95, ISBN 978-08130-4151-3.)
Growing out of a 2010 conference in London, England, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins and the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), From Sit-Ins to SNCC: The Student Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s brings together an interesting and eclectic mix of essays by British scholars of American studies, plus an epilogue by the prominent American historian of civil rights Steven F. Lawson. In their preface, editors Iwan Morgan and Philip Davies explain that the collection is not meant as "a comprehensive history of the student-centered civil rights movement that was bom in Greensboro" (p. vii). Instead it is an exploration of "selected aspects of this movement to cast light on its complex substance, development, and significance" (pp. vii-viii). In this endeavor the book is a success, presenting a multifaceted look at the 1960 sit-ins, SNCC, and some of the branches that grew out of those roots.
Through nine essays the authors present a wide range of topics: a delight for the reader but a challenge for the reviewer. While all the chapters have something to do with the student sit-ins or SNCC, there is no other analytical continuity, making a coherent review difficult. Aside from general assessments about the book as a whole, this space will instead be used to illuminate some of the particularly...