Although Arsenault edited his original 700-page scholarly work down to a mere 300 pages, the book is still a bit daunting. It does read more like a history text, or academic work, rather than an unfolding narrative.

That being said, it is still very well written and is about an extremely important topic - important, little-known non-violent civil rights movement in 1961 - prior to some of the more publicized movements that would take place in 1963 and later.

The activities of the Freedom Riders set the stage for much of the activity later in the decade, and probably even for some of the rights movements that would take place afterwards.

Take the time to get through this dense book - it's worth it to get an understanding of what was going on at the time, and to see the sacrifice made by these Freedom Riders.