Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Standing at Armageddon and The History of White People. She is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in East Orange, New Jersey, and the Adirondacks. Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Standing at Armageddon and The History of White People. She is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in East Orange, New Jersey, and the Adirondacks.

"Valuable and exuberant…artfully organized and edited.…Its strength is Mr. Hudson's remarkable memory, his ability to evoke the drudgery and minutiae that are at the core of any devoted party member's life, black or white, North or South."