Praise for Crisis and Compromise

 With insightful analysis and crystalline reporting, Robert Kimball gives the lie to the notion that the Civil Rights Act was solely the result of White House management and Democratic energy. Republican leaders like Charlie Halleck and William McCulloch get their due, but so do countless lesser-known politicians and staff members who worked tirelessly to bring this landmark legislation to life.

- Clay Risen, author of The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act  

Far more than a memoir, Robert Kimball’s Crisis and Compromise traces in step-by-step detail the congressional maneuvers, backroom negotiations, betrayals, personalities, and emotions that gave birth to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Told from the perspective of a young and eager congressional aide intimately involved in the process, Kimball refocuses the familiar narrative to highlight the seldom acknowledged—but central—role liberal and moderate Republicans played in passing the most important legislative act of the 20th century. Along with some surprising, revealing, and amusing stories about well-known participants in the process, Kimball’s book is especially valuable at a time when bipartisanship appears to be a forgotten practice.

- Arlene W. Saxonhouse, Caroline Robbins Professor of Political Science, Emerita, University of Michigan   

 This stirring first person account of the negotiations to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the U.S. House of Representatives sheds light on one of the most crucial moments in congressional history. Robert Kimball, as a Republican aide, participated in the action and now has recorded it. This book is a must read for students of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, congressional history, and leadership in action. 

-  Robert D. Loevy, editor of The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law That Ended Racial Segregation; Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Colorado College  

 It seems unlikely that a story about the congressional journey of a bill would be a cliff-hanger, but Robert Kimball’s memoir will keep you turning the pages even though you know the legislation will become law in the end. Not just any law, of course, but the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this important, first-person chronicle about his experience working on the historic, bipartisan legislation as a staffer for Republicans in the House of Representatives, Kimball delivers a message that should be instructive to members of both parties in Congress today. 

  -  Joseph I. Lieberman, United States Senator from Connecticut (1989-2013) 

 Robert Kimball’s memoir is a riveting revelation of the legislative maneuvering over the bill that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most important civil rights law in American history. As a recent Yale college graduate in the fall of 1963, Kimball played a key role behind the scenes in the deal-making that rescued a bill seemingly headed for defeat. Based on contemporaneous notes and files, this previously untold story is a significant contribution to the history of legislative and party politics in an era when, despite the noise of partisanship, compromise was possible.”  

- Jethro K. Lieberman, author of The Litigious Society and other books on the American legal system