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Arc Of Justice
A Saga Of Race, Civil Rights, And Murder In The Jazz Age
by Kevin Boyle

8.5 based on 13 reviews read critic reviews how did we calculate this? based on 15 votes read user comments rate this book

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• Official Publisher Site

In 1925, Ossian Sweet, a proud African-American doctor-grandson of a slave-had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white Detroit neighborhood. Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly, shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes. And so it began-a chain of events that brought America's greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality. Historian Kevin Boyle weaves the police investigation and courtroom drama of Sweet's murder trial into a tapestry of narrative history. [Henry Holt]

Henry Holt and Company, 432 pages
09/07/2004
$26.00

ISBN: 0805071458

Nonfiction
History

NOTES:
Winner of the 2004 National Book Award (Nonfiction).

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Boston Globe Paul Butler

A masterful account.

Chicago Tribune Eric Arnesen

A remarkable snapshot of a historical moment. Skillfully infusing his narrative with dramatic tension and explorations of his principals' psychology and motivation, Boyle brings a novelist's touch to his history.

Christian Science Monitor Gregory M. Lamb

Writing with the immediacy of a journalist and the flair of a novelist, he's produced a history that's at once an intense courtroom drama, a moving biography, and an engrossing look at race in America in the early 20th century.

Los Angeles Times Steve Oney

Masterfully weaving crime reporting and social history, Boyle has produced a fine and moving work. [5 Sept 2004, p.R5]

Publishers Weekly

Explores the politics of racism and the internecine battles within the nascent Civil Rights movement [and] grips right up to the stunning jaw-dropper of an ending.

Salon Priya Jain

Boyle has a keen eye for detail and a laudable aversion to idealizing his subjects. Although his affection for Sweet is clear, he's also honest -- sometimes brutally so -- about Sweet's weaknesses.

The New York Times Patrician Cohen

An impressive work. Deftly weaving together biography, courtroom drama and social history, Mr. Boyle has produced a meticulously researched and engrossing book.

The New York Times Book Review Robert F. Worth

By far the most cogent and thorough account yet of the trial and its aftermath (another book, Phyllis Vine's "One Man's Castle," appeared earlier this year). One of its virtues is the way Boyle vividly recreates the energy and menace of Detroit in 1925.

Houston Chronicle Steve Weinberg

Using one dramatic case to illuminate the bigger picture, Boyle has written a book that ought to become a standard text and might just become a classic of historical literature.

Kirkus Reviews

The way history should be written.

Library Journal Thomas J. Davis

This fact-filled, people-focused, readable work complements the growing literature on race in Detroit and in 20th-century U.S. urban development. [1 Oct 2004, p.93]

Booklist Vanessa Bush

Boyle, a history professor, brings immediacy and drama to the social and economic factors that ignited racial violence, provoked the compelling court case, and set in motion the civil rights struggle. [1 Sept 2004, p.26]

Entertainment Weekly Raymond Fiore

Boyle's page-turning account of the incident and the landmark murder trial is both exhaustive and exhausting: He spins a suspenseful narrative, but then abandons it for a 125-page analysis of Sweet's lineage.

The average user rating for this book is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sonia B gave it a10:
WonderfulL Anyone who enjoys African American History should read this book! I had to read it for class, but it soon became my pleasure reading!

Angela H gave it a10:
Boyle skillfully narates the historical context of the twentieth century throughout the work. A must read for those interested in the early civi rights struggles.

Elizabeth H gave it a10:
dr boyle is a prose poet holding his audience from introducation to last sentence of book. he is an historian of merit also.

Gerri H gave it a10:
compelling! it changed me from ignorant to knowing and caring.

Charles W gave it a6:
The book started out as a gripping story of racism and real people caught in an unreal situation. By mid-book, it lost its momentum by investigating every facet of race relations to the detriment of the original story. It really lost me.

John E gave it a10:
A riveting powerful story of the racist climate in jazz age Detroit. Woven through the book is the center piece of the story, charges of murder brought against a group of black men, who dared defend the rights of a black doctor and his wife who have moved into a previously all white neighborhood. A prejudicial investigation is undertaken and ensuing trial begins complete with overtones of the KKK, corrupt city politics and angry white residents faced in opposition by Clarence Darrow, NAACP and other prominent legal minds of the day, willing to take up the cause to defend the men. The resulting verdict and narrative history of the participants, after the trial, brings one to tears. A truly remarkable piece of research, drama and insight into civil rights, honor and dishonor among men and justice.

Dan C gave it a9:
An excellent book. What keeps it from being a 10, though, is the early concentration on the light of Dr. Sweet. I would have preferred more information about the legal battles and the court cases

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