'How We Win the Civil War' is a wonderful additional read for anyone that was a fan of Isabel Wilkerson's 'Caste'. As soon as Phillips referenced Wilkerson at the beginning of (and throughout) this book, I was engaged. The content of this book is quite dense at times, but that is par for the course with a complex and deeply important subject. Personally, I felt as if Phillips did an excellent job balancing the amount of information needed to support his arguments with moments of brief levity (often supplied by delightfully snarky side comments). I enjoyed that this book not only illustrated the obstacles at hand, but also outlined clear examples of how these obstacles have been successfully combatted in recent history. The core argument of keeping an emphasis on "playing the long game" and using data-backed strategies is deceptively simple, as we all know so much more goes into those actions. However, the delivery of straight-forward methods and facts that have followed these guidelines of how to make change, create an inspiring narrative that can often be hard to find. I did not feel that Phillips downplayed that force of the opposing side, however. Instead, he has created a work that argues for turning our energy towards proven methods that can have larger impacts.

While I fully agree that the United States civil war continues and that there are grassroots ways to continue the fight against white supremacy, this book didn’t really add anything to the current vibrant discussions about racism and democracy. The format was clunky and strictly adhering to the author’s set ups made it difficult to follow.

I agree with this author's main premise - that in many ways, the Civil War is still happening, and many of the problems the United States has are related to the continuation of that conflict.

I didn't care for the way it was written, though, and as I read, I was increasingly not sure about the ways this author was using his research. It seemed to lack depth. When I got to a serious misreading of "Huckleberry Finn," I called it quits.