5.0

Agonized over this review a bit — on one hand it very much is a one-of-a-kind work that historicizes the incredible legacy of the Black Panthers; on the other it still takes too idealistic a view of certain figures in Panther history (especially Elaine Brown and Richard Aoki) around whom credible allegations of FBI involvement exist.

To be fair, many of these allegations arose after the book was published in 2013, but the issue remains nonetheless that parts of the book now feel historically imprecise. Would be interested to see if the authors release an updated version in the coming years.