The book is organized into four sections, each preceded by an editors' introduction summarizing its contents and general theme. The first section sets the stage by discussing some of the historical antecedents of contemporary research in the area. From there the book moves to the empirical side of the science of networks before turning to the foundational modeling ideas that have been the focus of much subsequent activity. The book closes by taking the reader to the cutting edge of network science--the relationship between network structure and system dynamics. From network robustness to the spread of disease, this section offers a potpourri of topics on this rapidly expanding frontier of the new science.

At the same time, Newman details the Ministry's problems from its chronic underfunding to its uneasy relationship with the Mississippi NAACP, which pursued movement objectives through less confrontational methods. Newman looks at such Ministry failures as the Freedomcrafts manufacturing cooperative, and at such mixed efforts as Freedom City, a collective agricultural and manufacturing community built by displaced agricultural workers.

Divine Agitators looks at many inadequately studied events across a time span that extends beyond the widely accepted end dates of the civil rights movement. It offers new insights, at the most local levels of the movement, into such issues as conflict within and between civil rights groups, the increasing subtlety of white resistance, the disengagement of the federal government, and the rise of Black Power.

Mark Newman outlines the range of responses to the movement from the north to the south, examining the role of the federal government, the church, and organized labor, and assessing the impact of the Cold War. The book discusses local, regional, and national civil rights campaigns, the utility of non-violent direct action, and the resurgence of Black Nationalism. It examines the achievements and disintegration of the national civil rights coalition, the role of Martin Luther King Jr., the NAACP, and the contributions made by many otherwise ordinary men and women.