This book brought the whole panoply of Mississippi 1964 alive ... class divisions within whites in Mississippi helping to fuel the racism; the beginnings of class difference within blacks, too; the languid torpor before mass availability of AC; the casualness of cruel violence, and much, much more.

It's a wonder that more and more of the volunteers didn't come down with something like full-blown PTSD; I have no doubt of Watson's findings that more of them stayed single than the national average or showed other psychological changes.

Yet, as he notes, Mississippi, while still having boatloads of black poverty (as well as a fair amount of poor white poverty), has made not just good strides on racial issues, but better strides, in many ways, than other parts of the country. (Not you, Haley Barbour of self-puffery; sit back down.)