It was, and remains, a historical force. I think one could argue that To Kill a Mockingbird did for twentieth-century race relations, or at any rate for white attitudes toward blacks, what Uncle Tom’s Cabin did for white attitudes about slavery in the antebellum nineteenth century. And yet it is rarely examined as a work of serious literature, not to mention one whose convicting force changed the moral life of the nation. ~Wilfred McClay, First Things

The book is s staple of education across the country now (I had to read it in seventh grade), which tells me more about the political priorities of American English teachers and curriculum committees than it does about the social influence of the book. As part of a program of instilling guilt in young white children, rather than teaching them a principle of justice (as it might do), the book has probably had some influence on my generation through its deliberate use as a kind of propaganda.

The book is, as I recall from all those years ago, a decently written novel, and the film version provided Gregory Peck with the perfect political moralising role that he seems to have so desperately sought throughout his career, but can anyone seriously claim that this novel revolutionised white attitudes or transformed American race relations? We might give as much credit to In the Heat of the Night. That would make about as much sense.