What do you think?
Rate this book
A Time to Die: The Attica Prison Revolt
The essential first hand account of the Attica Prison rebellion, back in print for the 40th anniversary of the uprising
In 1971, the inmates of Attica revolted, took hostages, and forced the authorities into four days of desperate negotiation. The rebels demanded and were granted the presence of a group of observers to act as unofficial mediators. Tom Wicker, then the Associate Editor of the New York Times, was one of those summoned. This is his account.
356 pages, Paperback
First published January 12, 1976
10 people are currently reading
869 people want to read
About the author
Tom Wicker
69 books13 followersAlso wrote under the pseudonym Paul Connolly.
Thomas Grey Wicker’s respected talent as a journalist took him from his origins in Hamlet, North Carolina, to The New York Times. There he served as associate editor, former Washington bureau chief, as well as the author of the famous op-ed column “In the Nation” for thirty years. He was the author of a considerable number of acclaimed fiction and non-fiction books as well. Wicker earned his journalism degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 1948, and at first wrote for papers in Aberdeen and Lumberton. He wrote for the Winston-Salem Journal for eight years and The Nashville Tennessean for two years before heading up to the Times, where he eventually retired in 1991. Wicker’s famous report on the assassination of President Kennedy, written from the perspective of the motorcade following the president, has been praised as the most accurate firsthand account of the shooting.
Thomas Grey Wicker’s respected talent as a journalist took him from his origins in Hamlet, North Carolina, to The New York Times. There he served as associate editor, former Washington bureau chief, as well as the author of the famous op-ed column “In the Nation” for thirty years. He was the author of a considerable number of acclaimed fiction and non-fiction books as well. Wicker earned his journalism degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 1948, and at first wrote for papers in Aberdeen and Lumberton. He wrote for the Winston-Salem Journal for eight years and The Nashville Tennessean for two years before heading up to the Times, where he eventually retired in 1991. Wicker’s famous report on the assassination of President Kennedy, written from the perspective of the motorcade following the president, has been praised as the most accurate firsthand account of the shooting.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 3, 2016
An editor and proofreader by trade, I was recently lucky enough to proofread Heather Ann Thompson's forthcoming Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Aftermath, due in late August from Pantheon Books. In 1971 I was a student antiwar activist. Attica was one of the series of horrors that marked my young adulthood, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy through the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, My Lai, the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killings at Kent State and Jackson State, Watergate . . . But whatever details I'd registered at the time had pretty much vanished before I proofread Thompson's excellent and desperately important book.
From Blood in the Water I learned that Tom Wicker, a New York Times journalist I'd regularly read and admired "back in the day," had been one of the citizen observers present during the four-day "uprising" at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He'd written a book about his experience there: A Time to Die, published in 1975. Thanks to the inter-library loan system in my state, Massachusetts, I managed to find a copy.
A Time to Die is so moving and so timely I wish it were more readily available. (Update: I just learned that Haymarket Books in Chicago published a new edition of the book in 2011, so it's more readily available than I thought.)
The book is both a detailed account of the unfolding of events at Attica from September 9 through 13, 1971, and a memoir of Wicker's own odyssey as a white man from segregated small-town North Carolina to a crucible where race mattered in a very big way. The citizen observers at Attica were black, white, and Puerto Rican, elected officials and journalists and grassroots activists. Every passing hour asked Wicker and the others "Which side are you on?" Facile answers were not possible. One of the many excruciating strengths of this book is that Wicker never lets himself or the reader off the hook.
A Time to Die hints at the official whitewash of the horrific events of September 13, when the overarmed, undertrained New York State Police and Attica correction officers -- all of whom were white -- were turned loose on mostly black and Puerto Rican prisoners whose "weapons," if they had any, were strictly homemade. These events come at about the midpoint of Thompson's book. Blood in the Water traces the court cases that followed the uprising, those on behalf of the prisoners who were grievously wounded in the retaking of the prison and tortured by guards when the shooting was done and those on behalf of the hostage correction officers who were killed or wounded -- not by prisoners but by the trigger-happy law-enforcement officers sent in to retake the prison. The last of those cases was not settled until well into the first decade of the current century.
While reading both Wicker's book and Thompson's, I had a hard time believing that the key event took place 45 years ago. It could have happened last year; it could be happening now. I raged at the callousness, cowardice, and dishonesty of people who've been dead for 10 or 20 or 25 years. At the same time I was awed by the courage and perseverance of others, from the medical examiner who refused to be intimidated to the prosecutor who blew the whistle on the state's refusal to indict any law-enforcement officials for crimes committed during the retaking, to the lawyer who anchored the Attica brothers' defense for decades -- and who died last year, before Thompson's book made it into print.
Reading A Time to Die, I was also very struck by something that probably went largely unnoticed at the time: all, and I mean all, of the players were men. No surprise about the prisoners, of course: this was a men's prison, after all. But all of the prison administrators, all of the law-enforcement officers, everyone in Governor Nelson Rockefeller's office, all of the lawyers and judges, and even all of the citizen observers were men, and apart from the citizen observers virtually all of them were white. In the decades-long fight for justice that followed, however, women and people of color played key roles. May we be inspired by their example.
From Blood in the Water I learned that Tom Wicker, a New York Times journalist I'd regularly read and admired "back in the day," had been one of the citizen observers present during the four-day "uprising" at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He'd written a book about his experience there: A Time to Die, published in 1975. Thanks to the inter-library loan system in my state, Massachusetts, I managed to find a copy.
A Time to Die is so moving and so timely I wish it were more readily available. (Update: I just learned that Haymarket Books in Chicago published a new edition of the book in 2011, so it's more readily available than I thought.)
The book is both a detailed account of the unfolding of events at Attica from September 9 through 13, 1971, and a memoir of Wicker's own odyssey as a white man from segregated small-town North Carolina to a crucible where race mattered in a very big way. The citizen observers at Attica were black, white, and Puerto Rican, elected officials and journalists and grassroots activists. Every passing hour asked Wicker and the others "Which side are you on?" Facile answers were not possible. One of the many excruciating strengths of this book is that Wicker never lets himself or the reader off the hook.
A Time to Die hints at the official whitewash of the horrific events of September 13, when the overarmed, undertrained New York State Police and Attica correction officers -- all of whom were white -- were turned loose on mostly black and Puerto Rican prisoners whose "weapons," if they had any, were strictly homemade. These events come at about the midpoint of Thompson's book. Blood in the Water traces the court cases that followed the uprising, those on behalf of the prisoners who were grievously wounded in the retaking of the prison and tortured by guards when the shooting was done and those on behalf of the hostage correction officers who were killed or wounded -- not by prisoners but by the trigger-happy law-enforcement officers sent in to retake the prison. The last of those cases was not settled until well into the first decade of the current century.
While reading both Wicker's book and Thompson's, I had a hard time believing that the key event took place 45 years ago. It could have happened last year; it could be happening now. I raged at the callousness, cowardice, and dishonesty of people who've been dead for 10 or 20 or 25 years. At the same time I was awed by the courage and perseverance of others, from the medical examiner who refused to be intimidated to the prosecutor who blew the whistle on the state's refusal to indict any law-enforcement officials for crimes committed during the retaking, to the lawyer who anchored the Attica brothers' defense for decades -- and who died last year, before Thompson's book made it into print.
Reading A Time to Die, I was also very struck by something that probably went largely unnoticed at the time: all, and I mean all, of the players were men. No surprise about the prisoners, of course: this was a men's prison, after all. But all of the prison administrators, all of the law-enforcement officers, everyone in Governor Nelson Rockefeller's office, all of the lawyers and judges, and even all of the citizen observers were men, and apart from the citizen observers virtually all of them were white. In the decades-long fight for justice that followed, however, women and people of color played key roles. May we be inspired by their example.
November 11, 2020
Wicker walked into the prison yard unarmed and unprotected, surrounded by angry inmates armed with knives and spears. The legendary southern journalist wrote for one of the most respected newspapers in America. And now, his integrity and his intelligence were all that stood between these simple, frightened men and utter destruction. More was at stake here than the lives of the prison guards held hostage. More was at stake than the lives of the angry black inmates.
Wicker's own literary reputation was on the line.
Suddenly shots rang out. As a reporter for one of America's most respected newspapers, Wicker wisely took cover behind the largest prison guard available. Sticking his fingers deep into his ears, Wicker tried to shut out the screams of the dying as the guards who would not listen fired indiscriminately into the prison yard.
Afterwards, Wicker walked alone among the wreckage, musing on the failure of the governor, the police, and the prison officials to listen -- to heed his warnings. He was a cultivated southerner, a man of integrity, a writer for one of America's most important and prestigious newspapers.
When people fail to listen to men from important newspapers, only tragedy can result. Wicker mused on the tragedy, wondering if he could have done more. Yet he knew that the horror would continue, that the prison system would only grow more brutal. Only one hope sustained him. Wicker believed that his own reputation for candor, integrity, and courage would survive the horror at Attica.
But just to be sure, he wrote this book.
Wicker's own literary reputation was on the line.
Suddenly shots rang out. As a reporter for one of America's most respected newspapers, Wicker wisely took cover behind the largest prison guard available. Sticking his fingers deep into his ears, Wicker tried to shut out the screams of the dying as the guards who would not listen fired indiscriminately into the prison yard.
Afterwards, Wicker walked alone among the wreckage, musing on the failure of the governor, the police, and the prison officials to listen -- to heed his warnings. He was a cultivated southerner, a man of integrity, a writer for one of America's most important and prestigious newspapers.
When people fail to listen to men from important newspapers, only tragedy can result. Wicker mused on the tragedy, wondering if he could have done more. Yet he knew that the horror would continue, that the prison system would only grow more brutal. Only one hope sustained him. Wicker believed that his own reputation for candor, integrity, and courage would survive the horror at Attica.
But just to be sure, he wrote this book.
August 18, 2021
"Attica! Attica! Attica!" The prisoners who stormed Attica State Prison in New York in 1971 chose columnist Tom Wicker of THE NEW YORK TIMES to convey their messages and demands to the outside world. Perfect choice. Wicker was a white Southerner who could reach an audience that otherwise would ignore their pleas. In this memoir Wicker recounts not only his role in the largest prison uprising in US history but also confronting his own prejudices. Interestingly, the book is written in the third person, e.g. "Wicker had always believed...Wicker talked to Governor Rockefeller to no avail..." much in the manner of Norman Mailer's non-fiction from the Seventies.
January 18, 2012
there is a time when a few people get to truly see behind the curtain. there are events and episodes that lay bare the intense inequity and utter disregard for humanity that is at the heart of our capitalist system. stenibeck lays this bare in grapes of wrath and tom wicker does the same in this book. prisons in our country are a strange nexus of the ills of our capitalist system. it is why they are so hidden yet at the some time so prominent in our thinking of society and 'crime'. wicker struggles with what he could/should have done differently but in a lot of ways it was all preordained. the uprising, retaking of the prison, and the bloody, violent reprisals were all to be expected. the 'institutions' wielded their power and acted in totally expected ways. the unexpected part only comes in the fact that we are told to believe that things happen differently. this is what wicker struggles with too and what we all do when confronted with the fact that reality does not match rhetoric. wicker learned that prison communities are embroiled in a toxic stew of racism and tenuous employment within an industry clearing designed to dehumanize and destroy humanity rather than play any rehabilitative role. but we are taught that prisons are a necessary evil and that basically well meaning people try to do a good job. but as wicker found out, when looking behind the curtain, that our system is designed to warehouse and waste humanity and the twins evils of capitalism and racism both lead to a fully encouraged situation where prisoners are massacred. wicker stood face to face with these evils but could go no further than seeing a human failure. and while the problems were and are systemic the human failure is there. but that failure occurred before the attica uprising. it occurs everyday in what GI paris refers to as 'the conditions.' it is all about the conditions - the system - within which people behave in completely predictable ways. this is our human failure. this is what must be rectified to prevent an ever continuing cycle of pain, degradation and exploitation. this book and the events they describe are regrettable not just because the loss of life but because they could've been avoided.
Read
September 21, 2024This book is incredible, full stop. There may be no better account of Attica and its implications on race relations in America than this. This book is many things at once, and manages to do them all gracefully: it is part journalism, part memoir, it is a thorough account of the five days as experienced from eye-level, it is history and it is theory, a primer on mass incarceration and systemic racial violence, it is the author's research as well as his personal reconciliation with his privilege, his place in a country founded on bloody, genocidal boards. There's so many ways a project like this could have gone wrong, but Wicker toes the line well between fact and feeling. He shares his own experiences with race from his childhood in the southern heartland, but sparingly, only to properly furnish his understanding of the brothers in D-yard, where the focus is rightfully kept. I only wish he could have left us with more of a conclusion about how what he witnessed at Attica changed and challenged the conservative, individualist politics he alludes to throughout.
March 13, 2012
Tom Wicker, the author, was one of a group of observers who were caught up in the Attica,New York, prison riot.
Althought this book is 30 years old, it is still timely. Unfortunately, the problems that sparked the Attica prison revolt are still present today--little progress has been made in the past 30-plus years.
Wicker gives a lot of inofmration on many aspects of prisons. He and a group of observers were thrust in the middle to try and arrange a compromise between striking inmates and the correctional system. He mentions that the very first time he entered the prison yard, he saw all the guns and preparations and felt that their attempts at compromise would be futilte. With so many guns, he felt, sooner or later, they would be used. And they were, with a loss of life to both inmates and correctional officers.
Wicker points out the usall prison problems--overcrowding; idleness; arbitrary rules; lack of an appeals process for inmates and so on. I mean talk about dirty crooks--at that time in Attica prisoners were allowed one shower a week!
Wicker does not deny the crimes or backgrounds of those he met. But he does reflect on whether our current system is effective. An example (using prices in the 1970's but the idea is the same)--one inmate got four years for cashing bogus money orders totaling $124.60. At that time, it cost the state of New York $8,000 per year, per inmate. So $124.60 vs $32,000? What is wrong with this picture.
Of course, some persons ARE too dangerous to be loose, and this fact is admitted. But in some cases, prison can be overused.
A fascinating slice of history, regardless of one's feelings about prison reform. Recommended for fans of history, politics, law and criminal justice studies.
In ending, some person often will say that well known phrase, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime".
To this I wish to make three points 1)since we can't build enough prisons to hold everyone--we're trying--most prisoners eventually are released. If they come out less hardened and embittered, it would be better for society as a whole. 2) the measure of a society is how the poor and powerless are treated--the rich and powerful manage quite well in almost every society and finally 3) even if you hate and despite criminals, your tax dollars are paying for the current system. Maybe changing some aspects of how we run prison would be cheaper in the long run.
Althought this book is 30 years old, it is still timely. Unfortunately, the problems that sparked the Attica prison revolt are still present today--little progress has been made in the past 30-plus years.
Wicker gives a lot of inofmration on many aspects of prisons. He and a group of observers were thrust in the middle to try and arrange a compromise between striking inmates and the correctional system. He mentions that the very first time he entered the prison yard, he saw all the guns and preparations and felt that their attempts at compromise would be futilte. With so many guns, he felt, sooner or later, they would be used. And they were, with a loss of life to both inmates and correctional officers.
Wicker points out the usall prison problems--overcrowding; idleness; arbitrary rules; lack of an appeals process for inmates and so on. I mean talk about dirty crooks--at that time in Attica prisoners were allowed one shower a week!
Wicker does not deny the crimes or backgrounds of those he met. But he does reflect on whether our current system is effective. An example (using prices in the 1970's but the idea is the same)--one inmate got four years for cashing bogus money orders totaling $124.60. At that time, it cost the state of New York $8,000 per year, per inmate. So $124.60 vs $32,000? What is wrong with this picture.
Of course, some persons ARE too dangerous to be loose, and this fact is admitted. But in some cases, prison can be overused.
A fascinating slice of history, regardless of one's feelings about prison reform. Recommended for fans of history, politics, law and criminal justice studies.
In ending, some person often will say that well known phrase, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime".
To this I wish to make three points 1)since we can't build enough prisons to hold everyone--we're trying--most prisoners eventually are released. If they come out less hardened and embittered, it would be better for society as a whole. 2) the measure of a society is how the poor and powerless are treated--the rich and powerful manage quite well in almost every society and finally 3) even if you hate and despite criminals, your tax dollars are paying for the current system. Maybe changing some aspects of how we run prison would be cheaper in the long run.
May 26, 2010
Over the course of a few moves in my early twenties, I "inherited" this book from my parents. (It's the original hardback from the 70's.) I read it for the first time in the 1990's, and it still haunts me. Wicker not only brings a specific event alive (one of the best non-fics I've ever read), but discusses racism in an unvarnished way, even honest enough to reflect on his own hypocrisy. The statistics Wicker gives may be 30 years old,but I dare you to read this and still believe that the traditional American prison system works. Highly recommended.
August 15, 2015
About 100 pages too long but it served its purpose of making me understand what happened at Attica 40 years ago. The themes ring through in today's world as much as yesteryear's world, which should be alarming.
September 29, 2025
In September 1971, inmates of the state prison in Attica, New York, rioted. Like many such instances of that time, progenitors of the riot included over-crowding, poor food, poor sanitation that included non-working toilets and limited opportunities to shower, and overt racism. As now, it was very hard to convince legislators to appropriate more funding for prisoners, as the public in general takes a dim view of the convicted and often act out in elections against legislators who appropriate more funds for prisons, especially if taxes are raised or programs for the non-convicted are reduced to do so.
The prisoners in this instance took a novel approach; they requested the presence of "observers" from the news media and other institutions to see in person their grievances and help mediate discussions. What is shocking is the author and others agreed to participate despite the risk to themselves and that the government leaders allowed it. In hindsight, it was a mistake.
At the time, when large newspapers still were influential, Tom Wicker was a famous columnist who worked for the domineering New York Times. He had risen to sudden prominence through expert reporting when he happened to be on the scene of President Kennedy's 1963 assassination in Dallas, Texas. He remained a nationally well-known columnist into the early 1990s. This book was written just after the events and not through the lens of history. Immediate first hand accounts I believe provide the best history of events if not always the best context.
Wicker is a very good writer, but he makes a mistake sometimes writing of himself in the third person in the style of William Buckley or Normal Mailer; they can pull it off; Wicker cannot and he just sounds silly and putting on airs when he speaks of himself in this way but it's not too distracting.
Wicker gives an excellent account of how he came to be involved in this incident, his personal struggles deciding if he wanted to get personally involved and if it would affect his perception as a quality journalist. He describes conditions at the prison that led to the riot and having been there himself, gives an account of conditions inside the prison during the riot that no historian could ever generate and that is the value of this book. But as the story goes on, you can see the futility of the riot.
Yes conditions in the prison were inhumane and the institution needed more funding. If the inmates had focused solely on this, they might have gained the upper hand with officials and the public. But instead they became mired on a fantasy of "amnesty" that they would not be held legally accountable for the riot, causing damage, injuring and even killing a guard. Some even wanted to be flown away to freedom in a foreign nation. The insistence on those conditions, which the public never came to support, which most in the media did not support, and which neither state legislators nor Governor Nelson Rockefeller would support, effectively doomed the riot to end in violence.
Wicker does a good job nonetheless trying to present the point of view of the inmates and the extraordinary efforts he and the other observers did to try to mediate a non-violent end to the riot. Wicker even spoke to the governor himself. But in the end, the inmates did themselves in with the amnesty demand. When the inmates even more unwisely suddenly marched some of their hostages out and appeared to threaten them with knives and violence, the state authorities violently ended the riot with an invasion of law enforcement officers using tear gas and gunfire. Dozens of inmates were killed, as were 10 of the hostages. An investigation afterwards suggested that some of the unionized prison guards had participated in the takeback without the approval or knowledge of the state and local police who were directing the operation. The guards were clearly seeking retribution for the death of one of their own and having lost control to the inmates. But it also appeared most of the dead hostages had in fact been killed by friendly fire.
Wicker does a good job relating the case, but he also shows why civilians should not get involved in these situations. He clearly comes to personally identify with some of the rioters, something that has to be avoided in any negotiation situation, and if you think liberal, anti-police bias in the mass media is something new, Wicker's often negative portrayal of law enforcement, state leaders and his open admission to one of the rioters that he is on their side, speaks for itself, and this was in the 1970s not the 2020s.
A really good book that I am looking forward to comparing with the more recent book on this riot, Blood in the Water, that was written from the perspective of almost 50 years of history. I came across this 1970s book at a used book sale for a dollar, and knowing of a much more recent book on this riot, thought it would make a good read, and I am glad I picked it up!
The prisoners in this instance took a novel approach; they requested the presence of "observers" from the news media and other institutions to see in person their grievances and help mediate discussions. What is shocking is the author and others agreed to participate despite the risk to themselves and that the government leaders allowed it. In hindsight, it was a mistake.
At the time, when large newspapers still were influential, Tom Wicker was a famous columnist who worked for the domineering New York Times. He had risen to sudden prominence through expert reporting when he happened to be on the scene of President Kennedy's 1963 assassination in Dallas, Texas. He remained a nationally well-known columnist into the early 1990s. This book was written just after the events and not through the lens of history. Immediate first hand accounts I believe provide the best history of events if not always the best context.
Wicker is a very good writer, but he makes a mistake sometimes writing of himself in the third person in the style of William Buckley or Normal Mailer; they can pull it off; Wicker cannot and he just sounds silly and putting on airs when he speaks of himself in this way but it's not too distracting.
Wicker gives an excellent account of how he came to be involved in this incident, his personal struggles deciding if he wanted to get personally involved and if it would affect his perception as a quality journalist. He describes conditions at the prison that led to the riot and having been there himself, gives an account of conditions inside the prison during the riot that no historian could ever generate and that is the value of this book. But as the story goes on, you can see the futility of the riot.
Yes conditions in the prison were inhumane and the institution needed more funding. If the inmates had focused solely on this, they might have gained the upper hand with officials and the public. But instead they became mired on a fantasy of "amnesty" that they would not be held legally accountable for the riot, causing damage, injuring and even killing a guard. Some even wanted to be flown away to freedom in a foreign nation. The insistence on those conditions, which the public never came to support, which most in the media did not support, and which neither state legislators nor Governor Nelson Rockefeller would support, effectively doomed the riot to end in violence.
Wicker does a good job nonetheless trying to present the point of view of the inmates and the extraordinary efforts he and the other observers did to try to mediate a non-violent end to the riot. Wicker even spoke to the governor himself. But in the end, the inmates did themselves in with the amnesty demand. When the inmates even more unwisely suddenly marched some of their hostages out and appeared to threaten them with knives and violence, the state authorities violently ended the riot with an invasion of law enforcement officers using tear gas and gunfire. Dozens of inmates were killed, as were 10 of the hostages. An investigation afterwards suggested that some of the unionized prison guards had participated in the takeback without the approval or knowledge of the state and local police who were directing the operation. The guards were clearly seeking retribution for the death of one of their own and having lost control to the inmates. But it also appeared most of the dead hostages had in fact been killed by friendly fire.
Wicker does a good job relating the case, but he also shows why civilians should not get involved in these situations. He clearly comes to personally identify with some of the rioters, something that has to be avoided in any negotiation situation, and if you think liberal, anti-police bias in the mass media is something new, Wicker's often negative portrayal of law enforcement, state leaders and his open admission to one of the rioters that he is on their side, speaks for itself, and this was in the 1970s not the 2020s.
A really good book that I am looking forward to comparing with the more recent book on this riot, Blood in the Water, that was written from the perspective of almost 50 years of history. I came across this 1970s book at a used book sale for a dollar, and knowing of a much more recent book on this riot, thought it would make a good read, and I am glad I picked it up!
November 19, 2024
This is a very shocking book that details the Attica Prison revolt in 1971 from the perspective of one of the primary observers on the appointed observer's committee. Tom Wicker had his life seemingly upended when the prisoners requested his presence on this assembled committee at Attica. The author goes into detail about the negotiations that occurred over the four days and does a good job chronicling the desperation of the committee to resolve this issue peacefully and without violence from the prisoners and corrections officers. I was shocked how horrible conditions at the prison were and the very obvious racist attitude of the prison guards toward the prisoners, they really didn't look at them as people (before, during, and especially after the uprising) more like objects under their total control. Wicker does a good job chronicling how this revolt led to its bloody conclusion, highlighting the failures of the observer group (which essentially was a negotiating committee for the government and it's 28 points without being informed of this), the prisoners (who, in my opinion, wouldn't let go of the complete and total amnesty issue despite being told multiple times it wasn't likely to happen and held onto some more ridiculous demands like immediate transport to another country after the rebellion), and the government who made no effort to find ways to come to acceptable terms for all sides on the amnesty issues. The government, in particular the governor of the time Nelson Rockefeller, repeatedly ignored the recommendations from the neutral observer committee and did not even make and effort to come to the prison and hear from both the prisoners and the observers. This negligence is directly responsible for the shocking events that occurred four days later leading to the deaths of multiple hostages (most killed by the police officers storming D yard) and inmates upon retaking (or "restoring order" as the government of New York likes to say) of the prison. The final half of chapter 15 which discussed events that happened in the immediate aftermath of the recapture of the prison is sickening and shows just how little anyone in upper prison admiration or the New York Government gave a damn about the prisoners or turning them over to correction officials that were barred from participating the retaking of the prison BECAUSE it was feared they would use excessive force when it came to dealing with the inmates. You cannot imagine the atrocities committed in the immediate aftermath of "restoring order" to Attica. My only complaints about this book is the author chose to write it in third person which was very weird especially in the early chapters when he covered some of his early life experiences. The author goes on page long tangents about how he thought of the situation or how his southern ideals affected his attitude towards the prisoners, or how he felt like a failure throughout his career and how he viewed himself as less of a man for some decisions he made during his time on the committee. I really think these tangents should have been shorter or not included as it interrupted the flow of the story and really made a huge part of the book more about the author than the issues we should care about like how horrible the American prison system is and the horrible treatment and inherent racism present in the prison administration. Overall, a very good book about this uprising, but it does take awhile to read as the author's random tangents make the book progress at a very sluggish pace.
August 4, 2021
In September of 1971 Tom Wicker was a veteran New York Times columnist when he was requested by the Attica prisoners protesting their treatment to come to Attica and act as one of the mediators between the rioters and the administration/police/military groups aligned against them. The prisoners had taken 43 guards as hostages and were keeping them as leverage to be able to present their petitions for change, which the group that Wicker joined as mediator were assigned to help negotiate. Wicker was chosen because of a sympathetic column he had written just prior to the Attica riot about the death of George Jackson at San Quentin.
Wicker writes this as a memoir of his time at Attica during the riot and the final slaughter of 42 prisoners and hostages. His method of narration caught me off guard because I don't think I've ever encountered this approach before - while this is a memoir, Wicker wrote the book in the third person, making himself one of the main, but not the only, protagonists of the story. I think I understand why Wicker used this unusual approach... Wicker himself underwent so much personal self-recrimination and self-examination as a privileged liberal white man during these few days that it would have been very strange to be constantly reading sentences where he exposed himself in first person, ie 'I was stupid/ignorant/uninformed/elitist/smug/ etc.' By writing in third person he was able to observe and comment on himself and his behavior, as well as that of others, with more perspective and honesty. It was a very effect approach.
Having only recently also read Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, I felt Wicker's account gave me important information about the actual workings of a prison administration and its policies, and why conditions had created such a violent and unhappy consequence, while Mailer's book presented the personal stories of those who were affected by the consequences of one prisoner's experience of incarceration. These two accounts of the effects of our prison systems are frightening and enlightening, especially knowing that in the last 50 years nothing has really changed except perhaps to get worse with the privatization of prisons and the practice of corporations using prisoners for arbitrary cheap or free labor. Wicker's book is highly recommended.
Wicker writes this as a memoir of his time at Attica during the riot and the final slaughter of 42 prisoners and hostages. His method of narration caught me off guard because I don't think I've ever encountered this approach before - while this is a memoir, Wicker wrote the book in the third person, making himself one of the main, but not the only, protagonists of the story. I think I understand why Wicker used this unusual approach... Wicker himself underwent so much personal self-recrimination and self-examination as a privileged liberal white man during these few days that it would have been very strange to be constantly reading sentences where he exposed himself in first person, ie 'I was stupid/ignorant/uninformed/elitist/smug/ etc.' By writing in third person he was able to observe and comment on himself and his behavior, as well as that of others, with more perspective and honesty. It was a very effect approach.
Having only recently also read Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, I felt Wicker's account gave me important information about the actual workings of a prison administration and its policies, and why conditions had created such a violent and unhappy consequence, while Mailer's book presented the personal stories of those who were affected by the consequences of one prisoner's experience of incarceration. These two accounts of the effects of our prison systems are frightening and enlightening, especially knowing that in the last 50 years nothing has really changed except perhaps to get worse with the privatization of prisons and the practice of corporations using prisoners for arbitrary cheap or free labor. Wicker's book is highly recommended.
June 30, 2018
Although this book had a very interesting story to tell, it is very repetitive. This made the book dull to read in some parts.
It would have also been better, if the author had made an appendix with a list of all persons involved and their function in daily live. The story introduced so many people, making it difficult to understand. This made the book especially challenging in the first few chapters.
In a story about the biggest prison revolt ever the USA, I found it also strange that the author included his own biography. Okay... there is no problem with including a short background of himself, but many pages were dedicated (several times) to the authors youth, jobs, ...
It astonished me also that the author was writing the book by writing it as if from a third-person. So instead of “I was...”, the story was told as “Wicker was...”. And this whilst the author is Tom Wicker himself. Of all the books I have read, this was the first time I ever experienced this. With the large amount of people in the book, it would at least be somewhat easier if he himself would have used the first-person.
This book could have been a lot better in case it would have been reduced to 60 to 70 percent of its current length. By removing the repetitive parts, this would have been easily achievable. Instead of putting the shoot-out in the last 30 pages, and putting it in the first part of the book, I think the book would also be a better read. I was constantly waiting for the real action, and was dissapointed it was described only in the end in so few pages.
I would agree in stating I am quite negative on this book. The events and its importance, still warrant this book a three star score. I don’t know whether there are alternative reads on the Attica revolt, but I would recommend to look for an alternative book/writer.
It would have also been better, if the author had made an appendix with a list of all persons involved and their function in daily live. The story introduced so many people, making it difficult to understand. This made the book especially challenging in the first few chapters.
In a story about the biggest prison revolt ever the USA, I found it also strange that the author included his own biography. Okay... there is no problem with including a short background of himself, but many pages were dedicated (several times) to the authors youth, jobs, ...
It astonished me also that the author was writing the book by writing it as if from a third-person. So instead of “I was...”, the story was told as “Wicker was...”. And this whilst the author is Tom Wicker himself. Of all the books I have read, this was the first time I ever experienced this. With the large amount of people in the book, it would at least be somewhat easier if he himself would have used the first-person.
This book could have been a lot better in case it would have been reduced to 60 to 70 percent of its current length. By removing the repetitive parts, this would have been easily achievable. Instead of putting the shoot-out in the last 30 pages, and putting it in the first part of the book, I think the book would also be a better read. I was constantly waiting for the real action, and was dissapointed it was described only in the end in so few pages.
I would agree in stating I am quite negative on this book. The events and its importance, still warrant this book a three star score. I don’t know whether there are alternative reads on the Attica revolt, but I would recommend to look for an alternative book/writer.
March 31, 2021
In 1971 Attica Prison in New York State was packed with about double the number of prisoners it was designed to hold. The prisoners were kept to a boring, routine life of sleep, work, eat. They were given less than nutritious food, almost no health care, and no attempt to rehabilitate. Guards from the rural nearby area did not represent the prison population which was mostly black and Spanish speaking. Finally, prisoners revolted, held hostages, and made a list of demands. Tops on the list was amnesty and the removal of the the top man at Attica. Observers came. Among them was Tom Wicker whose one unspoken hope was that no one would be killed.
Negotiations progressed slowly but the top demand of amnesty was never agreed upon. Finally, Governor Rockefeller, who never came to the prison, allowed helicopters to gas the population and marksmen to shoot if there appeared to be violence by the population. In the confusion many hostages and prisoners were shot, many fatally. There were atrocities. It was nauseating to read what happened during the 6 minutes of shooting and what followed but it boiled down to the prisoners doing some of the killing but most of the deaths were the result of marksmen shooting both prisoners and hostages. No one was held accountable in the security system but there were prisoners who were put on trial. Some reforms were made in the two years following the revolt.
If you ever want to know why prisons need reform then and now, read this book. It will make you question what prisons should be and why. What punishment(other than loss of freedom) should prisoners have and what human rights do they have?
Negotiations progressed slowly but the top demand of amnesty was never agreed upon. Finally, Governor Rockefeller, who never came to the prison, allowed helicopters to gas the population and marksmen to shoot if there appeared to be violence by the population. In the confusion many hostages and prisoners were shot, many fatally. There were atrocities. It was nauseating to read what happened during the 6 minutes of shooting and what followed but it boiled down to the prisoners doing some of the killing but most of the deaths were the result of marksmen shooting both prisoners and hostages. No one was held accountable in the security system but there were prisoners who were put on trial. Some reforms were made in the two years following the revolt.
If you ever want to know why prisons need reform then and now, read this book. It will make you question what prisons should be and why. What punishment(other than loss of freedom) should prisoners have and what human rights do they have?
December 27, 2018
Tom Wicker was a journalist. During the Attica prison riot he was an observer. It is this experience that enabled him put this book together. Attica prison is situated in New York. The then governor for that State was Nelson Rockefeller. The prisoners had taken hostage some of the guards. They believed that this gave them the power they needed to plead for their case. They wanted changes in prison.
The prisoners were complaining of harsh treatment in the prison system. They wanted better. They wanted to be treated like human beings and not animals. Prison sentences were so harsh to the point that some of them did not want their family members to visit them. Homosexuality among prisoners was another problem which the authorities were turning a blind eye. Murders were also happening in prison. Overcrowding was another issue. Torture, both physical and mental by the guards. They wanted an overhaul of the system.
Tom Wicker's views are also very important. He has outlined some of the failures of imprisonment as a form of punishment. He advocates for more non-custodial sentences. And, when somebody has to be incarcerated, he suggests that it should be only for a short period of time. Prison does not rehabilitate, in fact, the longer the sentences the higher the chances of prisoners repeating the offences. What the society needs, he says is more education, more training, and hospitalization.
The prisoners were complaining of harsh treatment in the prison system. They wanted better. They wanted to be treated like human beings and not animals. Prison sentences were so harsh to the point that some of them did not want their family members to visit them. Homosexuality among prisoners was another problem which the authorities were turning a blind eye. Murders were also happening in prison. Overcrowding was another issue. Torture, both physical and mental by the guards. They wanted an overhaul of the system.
Tom Wicker's views are also very important. He has outlined some of the failures of imprisonment as a form of punishment. He advocates for more non-custodial sentences. And, when somebody has to be incarcerated, he suggests that it should be only for a short period of time. Prison does not rehabilitate, in fact, the longer the sentences the higher the chances of prisoners repeating the offences. What the society needs, he says is more education, more training, and hospitalization.
February 7, 2021
Struggling to assign a rating to this book, although I would give it somewhere in the 3-4 range. The story of what happened at Attica is gripping and horrific - incarcerated people finally rebelling against an institution that treated them like animals, and maintaining their relative freedom in a prison yard for days, largely because they took COs as hostages - treating them well and keeping them safe and gambling on the fact that the state wouldn't kill their own to "restore order." It was an incorrect gamble, and the story of the attack itself, the ensuing torture of those who were captured, and the lies told by the state in the wake of it all, is a story everyone should know.
That being said, the story is told through the eyes of a white male middle class liberal newspaper columnist who was called in, at the request of the incarcerated people rebelling, to serve as a witness. On the one hand, his honesty about his own perspective and experiences (intentionally, I think) illustrates the reality of white liberal racism and the utter insufficiency of white liberal politics generally - although to the end he seems to resist more radical politics, and thinks those at Attica who were more revolutionary were at times more loyal to their ideology than they were committed to saving lives. On the other hand, his attempt to write about his own upbringing, racism, prejudices, and politics in a self-aware way at times feels poorly executed and self-indulgent.
That being said, the story is told through the eyes of a white male middle class liberal newspaper columnist who was called in, at the request of the incarcerated people rebelling, to serve as a witness. On the one hand, his honesty about his own perspective and experiences (intentionally, I think) illustrates the reality of white liberal racism and the utter insufficiency of white liberal politics generally - although to the end he seems to resist more radical politics, and thinks those at Attica who were more revolutionary were at times more loyal to their ideology than they were committed to saving lives. On the other hand, his attempt to write about his own upbringing, racism, prejudices, and politics in a self-aware way at times feels poorly executed and self-indulgent.
January 21, 2025
Amazing primary source about the Attica uprising. Wicker was a NYT journalist called to the prison and who was there during it all. He gives a very detailed, minute-by-minute account. My only qualm was his decision to write about himself in the third person, but it doesn’t hurt the overall reading of the book. He speaks in length about his struggles to recognize his racial privilege, which I found refreshing and brave. This is a great introduction to the history of Attica for non-historians and historians alike.
February 3, 2023
This is an incredibly detailed account of the uprising at Attica. Essential reading for anyone interested in the revolutionary activities of the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Read
January 4, 2025i will read anything about attica
September 4, 2025
Historical events like this are documented and yet hardly anything has changed half a century later. Fucked
June 9, 2015
Maybe my expectations were to high or something, but this book seemed very long and boring to me. It never really grabbed me. Most of the book is about the authors experience as one of the "observers". Not much detail about what was going on in the prison as far as the inmates are concerned. I felt like a lot of the book was rehashing the same thing over and over. "The inmates want this....the inmates can't have that.....but they want this....but they can't have that....but they still want this.....but they still can't have that". That is how this book read to me. The beginning was ok, the end was ok, but otherwise I was just bored. Of course that's just my opinion. Obviously a lot of other people found the book quite intriguing, but I did not.
October 12, 2011
A fascinating, and heartbreaking, account of the rebellion at Attica in 1971, as told by Tom Wicker, a member of the observer's committee. Wicker was then a journalist with the New York Times, and by no means a radical, so it's fascinating to watch his own personal transformations.
Wicker has a unique perspective in this story, as not an inmate or a guard, but an observer. I might have disagreed with some of his political conclusions, but his observations are crucial to understanding what happened at Attica and why.
Wicker has a unique perspective in this story, as not an inmate or a guard, but an observer. I might have disagreed with some of his political conclusions, but his observations are crucial to understanding what happened at Attica and why.
February 23, 2014
Tom Wicker, one of the outsiders brought in to try to negotiate an end to the Attica Prison uprising, writes a touching account of what it feels like to be helpless while actions move forward to the inevitable deaths of hostage guards. As a young reporter, I covered all of the trials resulting from the riot. So there were lots of familiar faces and stories in this book. But there are also the stories behind the scenes as Wicker and others try to negotiate a peaceful settlement and save the guard's lives.
November 14, 2007
I read this book in the 90's. It was informative and interesting. Told the story of the Attica Prison riot. The author was involved in it due to becoming one of the mediators. A history book for the Attica State Prison in New York.
December 5, 2007
I can clearly remember the Attica Prison and the day Gov. Nelson Rockefeller sent in troops to retake the Yard at a great loss of life. NY Times author Tom Wicker tells the story, with the skill of a great reporter and the sympathy of human touched by the events.
August 24, 2010
A story too terrific to fathom, it is amazing how such a thing could happen in a land like America. Thanx to Tom Wicker for his wonderful hour by hoour coverage. This was one of the books that helped me go through the long vacation afetr A-Level.
September 19, 2011
The most vivid and comprehensive participant account of the uprising. Occasionally Wicker's probing of his white liberal conscience gets in the way, but I also think it has it's place.
February 18, 2012
Interesting history of Attica Uprising in which 39 inmates were killed. No hostages were
killed by inmates. Rockefeller was governor Happened Sept 13 19971
killed by inmates. Rockefeller was governor Happened Sept 13 19971
January 12, 2014
Definitive account of the 1971 Attica prison takeover.
March 27, 2015
It really bugged me that the author wrote it from a third-person perspective, but the description of events was powerful and thought provoking.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews