At the end of the 1960s, racial tensions were still high in America's cities, and so civil rights leader Floyd McKissick announced an audacious plan: he would build a new city in rural North Carolina, open to all but intended primarily to benefit Black people. Named Soul City, the community secured funding from the Nixon administration, but as Thomas Healy details, the utopian vision was not to be. Race-baiting Senator Jesse Helms swore to stop government spending on the project, and mistaken claims of fraud hindered further development. In this "absorbing account of a visionary project" (Library Journal), Healy asks: how might America be different today if Soul City had been allowed to succeed?