[In the following review of SNCC: The New Abolitionists, Brockway praises Zinn's hopeful account of the activities of the young leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.]

Social revolutions result from a complex mixture of factors combining at a particular point in history to force change toward ends that, for all their immediate concreteness, often reach far beyond themselves. Such is the case with the Negro revolution today. And such is the case with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “Snick”), one of the most vocal, “radical” and activist manifestations of that revolt.

Howard Zinn has lived with SNCC as a teacher of some of its leaders, as an observer and, to some extent, as a participant. His book is filled with personal accounts of these young fighters in the revolution's front line. It is the closest thing to a history of SNCC yet to appear, although Zinn is correct in preferring to call it a “glimpse of SNCC people in action” that suggests “the quality of their contribution to American civilization.”

To portray the Negro SNCC field secretaries—predominately young and coming from poor, working class southern families—would be difficult without transmitting something of their courage, enthusiasm and dedication. Zinn does so without hesitation and largely with approval. Through his eyes the reader can see events associated with such southern towns as McComb, Hattiesburg and Americus from the perspective of those who lived through those events, and can share the anger, fear, frustration and pride of the participants.

Beyond detailing SNCC's origin, development and activity, the author points to some fundamental questions being raised for society as a whole by the Negro revolution and by SNCC in particular. Herein lies his most helpful contribution for the future.

One question concerns the role of white men in the Negro revolt. The question can be put in this form only because race is a social and psychological factor that cannot be ignored by the integrationist or the segregationist, by the black or the white. SNCC and other civil rights organizations must constantly fight the tendency to move toward a benevolent black nationalism. The white man among them must curtail his urge to “become a Negro.”

Further, the nation must face the question of the federal government's role as protector of rights under the U.S. Constitution. SNCC leaders maintain that Washington has always had the power to protect civil rights workers in the south, that no new civil rights law was required and that the justice department was irresponsible in failing to halt local and state abuse of fundamental American rights. The author presents SNCC's case with obvious agreement, and in so doing places before us once again the knotty problem of whether the United States is to be a unified whole or a federation of sovereign states.

Wherein lies the future of SNCC? What happens when the “students” now running the organization become mature in years? Zinn discerns signs often ignored by observers who foresee the ritual and mission of the organization falling apart when the immediate goals are accomplished. For one thing, he sees no closed ideology among SNCC workers. They are, rather, open to the problems of the future, problems which Zinn contends have been brought to the surface by the Negro revolt itself: a new evaluation of the concept of “nonviolence”; a fresh emphasis on the realization of free expression; a far-reaching reform of “jails, judges and justice”; the possibility of the total elimination of poverty and the necessity for a new and creative approach to education.

In summary, Zinn sees in the young men and women whom SNCC represents a great hope for the renewal of American society. Yet a large question hangs over the movement. Can its workers manage to see beyond the circumstances of the moment? Can they be “in the world but not of it”? Will they be willing to forsake present methods and purposes when these become outmoded? Zinn says Yes. Let us hope he is right.

A final mundane note: the index is regrettably inadequate. Some names, such as that of Ed King, are omitted entirely; others mentioned repeatedly throughout the book are noted only once. It is hoped that this flaw will be corrected in any future editions.