Riot

On the topic of the Civil War, many people know about the war between the South and the North, at little else. The scope of the Civil War, both its feelings and underlying causes, are far greater than one may initially realize. The idea that the war was fought to end slavery may have been the goal at it's end, but it certainly was not the initial goal. Initially, many people volunteered in order to preserve the Union of the United States, with many people believing that secession amounted to treason. Yet, the war, as it is with any conflict, cannot be generalized so. Although there are many people who believe that the North was a shining Utopia of freedom for former slaves, nothing could be farther from the truth. There were many different people who were just as racist as there brothers to the south, and often enacted policies and political views that perpetuated racist ideals well into the 20th century.
It is with this in mind that we come into the screenplay Riot by Walter Dean Myers. When I looked at this book on Goodreads, I was surprised to find that this book had a 3.2 rating average (For the record, about 4.0 is average for most books on Goodreads) ! This is because that Myers manages to do what all great historical fiction does: take the wider events of a historical time period and narrow it down to the microcosm of a family or individual. It is an excellently done book about how racist ideas can spread and cause violence, even in the midst of fighting for freedom. This book also can be used to explore the different ideas of supply and demand in economics, with the irish immigrants living in already squalor and poverty fighting for the few jobs available, worried about the freed African Americans coming to work for even lower wages. In short this book is an excellent example of that, and it shouldn't be discounted because of it.
I will say that I did listen to this as a stage play with a full cast, so I would recommend that that be how one reads this text. It was excellently done, and I think that is superior over a simple paperback form.
In any case, I would say that this book should not be missed, and is vastly underrated. I give it a five out of five!