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*A New York Times Notable Book of the Year*

* A Washington Post Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction)*

* A Kirkus Best Book of the Year*

“Jo Becker has written a riveting history of one of America’s great court cases. She captures our struggle for freedom and its epic sweep just perfectly. Future generations will turn to her book to understand Proposition 8 from its inception its journey to the Supreme Court, along with special insights into the remarkable DOMA victory led by the legendary Edie Windsor.”–David Mixner, LGBT Activist and Author of Stranger Among Friends and Brave Journeys: Profiles in Gay and Lesbian Courage

“[A] riveting legal drama, a snapshot in time, when the gay rights movement altered course and public opinion shifted with the speed of a bullet train… Becker’s most remarkable accomplishment is to weave a spellbinder of a tale that, despite a finale reported around the world, manages to keep readers gripped until the very end.” –The Washington Post

A groundbreaking work of reportage by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jo Becker, Forcing the Spring is the definitive account of five remarkable years in American civil rights history, when the United States experienced a tectonic shift on the issue of marriage equality. Focusing on the historic legal challenge of California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Becker offers a gripping, behind-the scenes narrative told with the lightning pace of a great legal thriller. Taking the reader from the Oval Office to the Supreme Court ruling, from state-by-state campaigns to an astounding shift in national public opinion, Forcing the Spring is political and legal journalism at its finest.