- Paperback: 624 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; illustrated edition edition (Dec 17 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0465036260
- ISBN-13: 978-0465036264
- Product Dimensions: 2 x 1.3 x 0.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,987,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In this detailed history of race relations between blacks and whites in the post-civil rights era, Tamar Jacoby looks at how the ideal of integration has fared since it was first advocated by Martin Luther King, Jr. Blacks have made enormous economic, political, and social progress, and yet integration remains an elusive goal. Jacoby, an experienced journalist whose narrative is well-written and easy to follow, examines the experiences of three cities: Atlanta, Detroit, and New York. She looks at how each has dealt with major racial controversies since the 1960s, including Black Power, racial preferences, and busing. Jacoby considers integration a worthy goal, but criticizes many of the means society has used to reach it. "Devising new strategies will not be easy, but history can guide us, if we know how to listen," she writes. Someone Else's House is perhaps the finest historical account of race relations in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. --John J. Miller
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
This is a well-documented but gloomy tale of three citiesANew York, Detroit and AtlantaAand their unsuccessful struggle to realize Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of an integrated society. Jacoby, a former editor at the New York Times, puts a great deal of the blame on Mayors John Lindsay, Coleman Young, Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young for what she sees as their faulty though well-intentioned leadership. She argues that Lindsay, a charismatic liberal, thought he could turn New York City in the 1960s into an experimental laboratory for decentralized government, neighborhood empowerment and community control of the public schools. He disappointed the rising expectations of the ghetto poor while antagonizing ethnic whites. Coleman Young, a militant African American, took over in Detroit in the wake of an urban riot, seeking to make the city a working example of black power but increased white flight to the suburbs while leaving a residue of alienated inner-city blacks. In Atlanta, Maynard Jackson took office in the same week in 1973 as Coleman Young, emphasizing "set asides" for black entrepreneurs seeking a share of the white economic pie. Charges of corruption in a process that failed to train rank-and-file minorities to achieve mainstream success along with a rising crime rate and continuing segregation marred the record of the South's first African American big-city mayor. The legacy proved more than his successor, Andrew Young, could overcome. Young's run for governor went down to humiliating defeat, the victim of black indifference as well as white hostility. Jacoby counsels a long road of acculturation rather than short-term government policies, which, she claims, have only exacerbated the situation.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Putting politics aside...,
By
This review is from: Someone Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration (Hardcover)
...this book was dissapointing.It tries to be a complication of three "case studies" in racial harmony: New York, Detroit, and Atlanta. While it is surprising that someone who worked for the New York Times (on the editorial page, no less!) would write a book that highlights the failure of liberal policy to further the cause of racial harmony, it lacks cohesiveness & depth. It reads like a bunch of daily newspaper articles loosely stitched together--no foresight, no hindsight. There are detailed accounts of the day-by-day happenings of important events, but very little effort is given to tying these events into the big picture. Indeed, there were times I got very frustrated, because she would take 25-50 pages to explain an event in excruciating detail, then wrap it up with some statement like "But this event wasn't very important anyways." There are no proper notations, either. The citations are just listed in the appendix, with a general page reference. This is a real shortcoming, as you never know whether or not a given statement will have a citation. If you're using this book for secondary research, beware! Lastly, there are occasions where the author either contradicts herself, or appears to contradict herself with an ambiguous statement. My opinion is that the author was well-intentioned, and this is an important subject, but the book fell victim to very poor editting. If more time and effort had been spent in making the book flow better, have greater depth, proper citations, and fewer errors, it (would have been) a lot better.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By Brian Best (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Someone Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration (Hardcover)
Ms. Jacoby appears to believe that what holds black people back is their own shortcomings and the bigotry of some white people. I find missing any comprehension that when the people in power have discriminated against another, mostly powerless group for hundreds of years that what results is a dramatic imbalance of power. Racism in this country has resulted in a system of white priveledge that still today gives many white people an advantage over black people. She can easily fault black leaders for their initiatives when she doesn't recognize that what blacks are trying to overcome is a basic imbalance of power. Why do we need affirmative action, she seems to ask, when blacks are held back by their problems and by a few white bigots? If the question is how do we achieve integration at all levels of the power structure in this country, then the answer might be different. Jacoby never tells us what her personal beliefs are, appearing to tell what she thinks is the truth. But there are many ways to interpret the same set of "facts," and she has clearly interpreted some things using her own preconceptions.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Searing honesty,
By A Customer
This review is from: Someone Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration (Hardcover)
I had a rare chance to watch a book develop from research to writing to publication in this case. This book affords insights about the reasonable "middle" on race, America's most enduring and painful issue. I hope, as the author does, that we can move beyond racial animosity.
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