MIDDLE GEORGIA BOOKSHELF: 'John Birch: A Life'

By Terry Lautz of Syracuse, New York

317 pages, $22.13 (Oxford University Press)

What it's about: John Birch, a Baptist missionary and soldier in China during World War II, lived in Macon as a teenager and graduated from Mercer University in 1939. Killed by Communists at the end of the war, he posthumously became the namesake for the John Birch Society, one of the most polarizing groups of the Cold War era.

The author's favorite line in the book: "A warrior's martyrdom was not his intent, exposing the aims of the Chinese Communists was not his cause, and representing a conspiracy theory was not his ambition."

Where to find it: www.Amazon.com, www.BarnesandNoble.com

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 8:13 PM with the headline "MIDDLE GEORGIA BOOKSHELF: 'John Birch: A Life' ."