Unexampled Courage is a searing work of history that must be read in today's America: an account of the fight for civil rights that reminds us just how much we depend on the bravery of the few to right the wrongs of many. Reading it is an emotional journey. There are tears of rage, but also admiration for the extraordinary courage of a brutalized and blinded black soldier; of a southern judge whose conscience drove him to oppose his racist heritage; and of an American president who risked everything to do what he believed to be right at a time when the United States hoped its moral leadership would resonate around the world.

-- Christopher Dickey, author of Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South