DAVID ZUCCHINO is a contributing writer for The New York Times. He has covered wars and civil conflicts in more than three dozen countries. Zucchino was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his dispatches from apartheid South Africa and is a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting from Iraq, Lebanon, Africa and inner-city Philadelphia. He is the author of Thunder Run and Myth of the Welfare Queen.
WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NONFICTION Praise for
Wilmington's Lie: "A gripping account of the overthrow of the
elected government of a Black-majority North Carolina city after
Reconstruction that untangles a complicated set of power dynamics
cutting across race, class and gender." --2021 General Nonfiction
Pulitzer Prize Committee "A judicious and riveting new
history...The publication of a book like Zucchino's, [is] a sign
that, however late and reluctantly, America is becoming conscious
of the racial violence that insured white supremacy after
Reconstruction."--New Yorker "Brilliant...Zucchino, a contributing
writer for the New York Times, does not overwrite the scenes. His
moral judgment stands at a distance. He simply describes what
happened and the lies told to justify it all...The details
contained in the last part of the book are heart-wrenching. With
economy and a cinematic touch, Zucchino recounts the brutal assault
on black Wilmington."--New York Times "In Wilmington's Lie, David
Zucchino, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has covered
conflicts around the world, punctures the myths surrounding the
insurrection and provides a dynamic and detailed account of the
lives of perpetrators and victims...Deeply researched and
profoundly relevant, Wilmington's Lie explains how [the coup]
happened and suggests how much work remains to be done to come to
terms with what took place."--Washington Post "This is an amazing
story."--Dave Davies, NPR's Fresh Air "David Zucchino offers a
gripping account of one of the most disturbing, though virtually
unknown, political events in American history...Thanks to Mr.
Zucchino's unflinching account, we now have the full, appalling
story. As befits a serious journalist, he avoids polemics and lets
events speak for themselves. Wilmington's Lie joins a growing shelf
of works that unpeel the brutal realities of the post-Civil War
South...it is books such as these, not least Wilmington's Lie, that
have redeemed the truth of post-Civil War history from the
tenacious mythology of racism."--Wall Street Journal "In his new
book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David 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... In his riveting book, Zucchino
retells one horrifying attempt to re-establish the "rightful place"
of former slaves: starkly isolated, with scant hope of
parity."--Guardian "Wilmington's Lie shows how effectively people
in power can distort history. And yet it also proves that the past
isn't easily erased. We still don't know how many black people died
in Wilmington, and we also don't know many of their names. But the
truth--much of it--has finally come out."--Charlotte Observer
"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, its origins in the
political climate of the era, and its far-reaching implications for
North Carolina and the rest of the resurgent Confederacy in the
decades that followed."--New York Journal of Books "The
dumbfounding, true story in David Zucchino's Wilmington's Lie [is]
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... Zucchino is your ideal guide. The Pulitzer
Prize-winner and former Inquirer staffer is a tireless, resourceful
reporter, an incisive social analyst, and a direct, often elegant
writer."--Philadelphia Inquirer "Brilliant...Zucchino reports his
way through the action and the personal stories with great care,
culminating in the central story that has been covered up over the
last century: the stunning overthrow of the legitimately elected
Wilmington city government...David Zucchino dedicates Wilmington's
Lie "to the dead and banished, known and unknown." Through this act
of documenting, he brings truth to the lie."--Southern Review of
Books "Wilmington's Lie is a riveting and mesmerizing page turner,
with lessons about racial violence that echo loudly
today."--BookPage "Usually, when we read history, we at least have
a cursory knowledge of the subject at hand. Sometimes, however, a
book comes along that just surprises. How did we not know about
this before? we ask ourselves. Wilmington's Lie is such a book...We
did not have to wait long for the first great history book of the
new decade." --Chris Schluep, Amazon "Best of January" Selection
"Pierces layers of myth and invented history . . . Wilmington's Lie
reconstructs the only violent overthrow of an elected government in
U.S. history, tying the white supremacist bloodshed to political
goals that are still relevant today."--Shelf Awareness "Extremely
compelling and convincing...Even astute readers of history and
civil rights will be alarmed by this story, which is why it should
be read. For fans of American history, politics, and civil
rights."--Library Journal "Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Zucchino delivers a searing chronicle of the November 1898 white
supremacist uprising in Wilmington, N.C., that overthrew the
municipal government...Drawing on a wealth of primary sources,
Zucchino paints a disturbing portrait of the massacre and how it
was covered up by being described as a "race riot" sparked by
African-Americans. This masterful account reveals a shameful
chapter in American history."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Zucchino shines his reporter's
spotlight on what he aptly calls a murderous coup as well as
exploring its background and long-term consequences...The result is
both a page-turner and a sobering reminder of democracy's
fragility."--Booklist "A searing and still-relevant tale of racial
injustice at the turn of the 20th century... A book that does
history a service by uncovering a shameful episode, one that
resonates strongly today."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "One of
the great journalists of our time has placed his discerning eye on
the steaming cauldron of our shared racial history. The result is
this extraordinary book written with the superb quality and
journalistic excellence that is Zucchino's trademark." --James
McBride, National Book Award-winning author of The Good Lord Bird
"David Zucchino is one of the finest foreign correspondents I have
ever worked with in 40 years of journalism. Now imagine you take
someone with David's reporting skills and transport him back in
history to 1898 and Wilmington, North Carolina. And you tell him to
tell us the story of the only violent overthrow of an elected
government in American history. It was perpetrated by white
supremacists seeking to reverse the remarkable advances in racial
pluralism in Wilmington of that day--a positive example that was
primed to spread throughout the state, and beyond. What you end up
with is a gripping, cannot-put-down book that is both history and a
distant mirror on just how much can go wrong in this great country
of ours when populist politicians play the race card without
restraint."--Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist "A
staggeringly great book, both thrilling and tragic, shining light
on a dark passage of American history." --Tim Weiner, National Book
Award-winning author of Legacy of Ashes "Wilmington's Lie is
riveting and meticulously reported and powerfully written. It is
also scalding and revelatory. As David Zucchino shows with
relentless drama, the end of the Civil War was not the end of
slavery but the beginning of a period more terrifying, the
unchecked rise of white supremacy that culminated in a day of
unparalleled blood in a North Carolina coastal town. It is a
forgotten chapter in American history. Zucchino has now made it an
unforgettable one." --Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night
Lights
Praise for David Zucchino: "Even a very short, victorious shooting
war against a disorganized, dispirited, vastly outnumbered and
underequipped enemy is hell. That is the central message that Los
Angeles Times correspondent Zucchino brings home startlingly well
in this riveting account of the American military's lightning
capture of Baghdad in April 2003...[A] high-quality example of
in-depth and evocative war reporting."--Publishers Weekly, on
Thunder Run "Zucchino does not obscure the ugliness--including
welfare recipients who embrace dependence--that surrounds them, but
what stands out is the resilience of these women in the face of
events that would be insurmountable tragedies for most middle- and
upper-class Americans. It is unlikely this book will engender new
and widespread respect for welfare mothers, for the 'welfare queen'
myth draws its strength from what people want to believe, not
misperceptions of reality. But by setting aside presuppositions and
moral judgments to simply describe what he finds, Zucchino offers a
substantive image of life on welfare."--Kirkus Reviews, on Myth of
the Welfare Queen
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