I knew to expect the story of the Greenwood massacre, but that history hardly scratches the surface of this book, which brings the reader nearly to the present day. I thought the near-present analysis of the way Greenwood has been celebrated and exploited as a symbol contained some of the strongest material of the whole book. I also appreciated the talent of the author who could assemble a vivid narrative both from historical material and on-the-ground journalism, and weave it all into a single story.

On a personal level, I found this to be a valuable meditation on how to build things that last in an unjust society. There are a lot of lessons, positive and negative, in this book.