[Civil Wars is a] chilling but profoundly hopeful vision of living in the USA. Jordan's vibrant spirit manifests itself throughout this collection of articles, letters, journal entries, and essays. What is fundamental to that spirit is caring, commitment, a deep-rooted belief in the sanctity of life….

As poet, novelist, journalist, scenarist, urban designer, and teacher—June Jordan has always worked hard to keep before us the essential questions of life, death, choice, and honor. She has done it not from the relatively safe vantage point the writer's desk affords, but always from the danger zone, in the heated thick of things….

Civil Wars is an "autobiography" very much in the vein of Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept, by W.E.B. DuBois, the distinguished black scholar and activist of an earlier generation. Jordan, like DuBois before her, eschews the "memoir" or...