David Zucchino’s engaging and disturbing book, Wilmington’s Lie, not only vividly reconstructs the events of 1898 but reveals the mountain of lies that has stood in the way of a truer, if not a reconciled, history. All those in America who do not understand the old and festering foundation of contemporary voter suppression should read this book.

... brilliant.

Zucchino offers a gripping account of one of the most disturbing, though virtually unknown, political events in American history.

In Wilmington’s Lie, David Zucchino...punctures the myths surrounding the insurrection and provides a dynamic and detailed account of the lives of perpetrators and victims.

... a judicious and riveting new history.

Mr. Zucchino tells the story of Wilmington like a longform reporter rather than a historian, carefully cataloguing the small details and chilling individual stories of this atrocity. He makes the terror black residents of the city felt over those few days palpable.

... so lacerating, so appalling you often can’t believe what you’re reading. I hope this powerful book helps preserve this bad memory for a long time.

...brilliant.

... explores in gripping detail the efforts of white supremacists to overturn black political and social power in Wilmington and to eliminate black citizens by any means necessary.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Zucchino cuts through a century of propaganda, myth, and big white lies to unmask the stunning history of the Wilmington coup.

Zucchino illuminates a harrowing historical incident, the Wilmington coup of 1898, that is long forgotten by most. In doing so, he does a lot to explain our own interesting times.

... [a] searing narrative.

... a remarkable account of a distinctive historical moment.

Zucchino shines his reporter’s spotlight on what he aptly calls a murderous coup as well as exploring its background and long-term consequences. He details how cynical operatives fanned racial hatred among Wilmington’s white working class, the vibrancy of the African American community, whose very existence was threatened by the coup, and the passive federal response that helped to entrench white supremacy and terror throughout the South, using the stories of figures like crusading Black newspaper editor Alex Manly and Democratic leader Josephus Daniels (whose reputation as a prudish but generally progressive politician takes a well-deserved hit) to add depth and nuance. The result is both a page-turner and a sobering reminder of democracy’s fragility..

The story has been told before, by many fine historians...Zucchino, however, finds new relevance for it in his book-length account.

Zucchino uses personal diaries and testimonies from those present to engage readers. He also aims to illustrate the context of the coup and its repercussions on the following century of disenfranchisement; his account is extremely compelling and convincing.

A searing and still-relevant tale of racial injustice at the turn of the 20th century.

... searing.