What do you think?
Rate this book
A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America
A Country of Strangers is a magnificent exploration of the psychological landscape where blacks and whites meet. To tell the story in human rather than abstract terms, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David K. Shipler bypasses both extremists and celebrities and takes us among ordinary Americans as they encounter one another across racial lines.
We learn how blacks and whites see each other, how they interpret each other's behavior, and how certain damaging images and assumptions seep into the actions of even the most unbiased. We penetrate into dimensions of stereotyping and discrimination that are usually invisible, and discover the unseen prejudices and privileges of white Americans, and what black Americans make of them.
We explore the competing impulses of integration and separation: the reference points by which the races navigate as they venture out and then withdraw; the biculturalism that many blacks perfect as they move back and forth between the white and black worlds, and the homesickness some blacks feel for the comfort of all-black separateness. There are portrayals of interracial families and their multiracial children--expert guides through the clashes created by racial blending in America. We see how whites and blacks each carry the burden of our history.
Black-white stereotypes are dissected: the physical bodies that we see, the mental qualities we imagine, the moral character we attribute to others and to ourselves, the violence we fear, the power we seek or are loath to relinquish.
The book makes clear that we have the ability to shape our racial landscape--to reconstruct, even if not perfectly, the texture of our relationships. There is an assessment of the complexity confronting blacks and whites alike as they struggle to recognize and define the racial motivations that may or may not be present in a thought, a word, a deed. The book does not prescribe, but it documents the silences that prevail, the listening that doesn't happen, the conversations that don't take place. It looks at relations between minorities, including blacks and Jews, and blacks and Koreans. It explores the human dimensions of affirmative action, the intricate contacts and misunderstandings across racial lines among coworkers and neighbors. It is unstinting in its criticism of our society's failure to come to grips with bigotry; but it is also, happily, crowded with black people and white people who struggle in their daily lives to do just that.
A remarkable book that will stimulate each of us to reexamine and better understand our own deepest attitudes in regard to race in America.
We learn how blacks and whites see each other, how they interpret each other's behavior, and how certain damaging images and assumptions seep into the actions of even the most unbiased. We penetrate into dimensions of stereotyping and discrimination that are usually invisible, and discover the unseen prejudices and privileges of white Americans, and what black Americans make of them.
We explore the competing impulses of integration and separation: the reference points by which the races navigate as they venture out and then withdraw; the biculturalism that many blacks perfect as they move back and forth between the white and black worlds, and the homesickness some blacks feel for the comfort of all-black separateness. There are portrayals of interracial families and their multiracial children--expert guides through the clashes created by racial blending in America. We see how whites and blacks each carry the burden of our history.
Black-white stereotypes are dissected: the physical bodies that we see, the mental qualities we imagine, the moral character we attribute to others and to ourselves, the violence we fear, the power we seek or are loath to relinquish.
The book makes clear that we have the ability to shape our racial landscape--to reconstruct, even if not perfectly, the texture of our relationships. There is an assessment of the complexity confronting blacks and whites alike as they struggle to recognize and define the racial motivations that may or may not be present in a thought, a word, a deed. The book does not prescribe, but it documents the silences that prevail, the listening that doesn't happen, the conversations that don't take place. It looks at relations between minorities, including blacks and Jews, and blacks and Koreans. It explores the human dimensions of affirmative action, the intricate contacts and misunderstandings across racial lines among coworkers and neighbors. It is unstinting in its criticism of our society's failure to come to grips with bigotry; but it is also, happily, crowded with black people and white people who struggle in their daily lives to do just that.
A remarkable book that will stimulate each of us to reexamine and better understand our own deepest attitudes in regard to race in America.
607 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
19 people are currently reading
502 people want to read
About the author
David K. Shipler
16 books89 followersDavid K. Shipler reported for The New York Times from 1966 to 1988 in New York, Saigon, Moscow, Jerusalem, and Washington. He is the author of four other books, including the best sellers Russia and The Working Poor, and Arab and Jew, which won the Pulitzer Prize. He has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and has taught at Princeton University, at American University in Washington, D.C., and at Dartmouth College.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 19, 2013
For some reason I read quite a few books that are from the 1980s and 1990s and I think about where I was in my life when the book was published. My daughter Anna was four years old when A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America came out. This is one book I wish I would have read back then but I probably never even heard about it. Books were not as central to my life then as they are now that I am a voracious reader. Even years later, Anna is twenty now, I can still relate to much of its content. All of us white people have our stereotypes and prejudices. Turns out Blacks do too, as you will learn. “Don’t be near a white person when it rains. Their hair stinks when it gets wet.”
I am a baby-boomer who grew up in a white suburb outside of an increasingly black Detroit. “White flight” was the term and says it all about race relations at the time. Eight Mile Road was the dividing line and I lived at Fourteen Mile Road. The riots in 1967 came out to Eight Mile. Whites who had fled Detroit were afraid that “those people” might come out further into the suburbs. Some riot events gained notoriety from the book by John Hersey The Algiers Motel Incident . Whites called it a riot; blacks called it a rebellion.
I am tempted to call Mr. Shipley a social scientist but he is more a journalist. He promises at the beginning of the book that there will not be a lot of numerical data. He keeps that promise. The introduction has quite a few statistics but then true to his word, he moves to anecdotal evidence, stories from the many, many people across the country that he has talked to about race relations, present and past. This book was eight years in the making and he did a lot of traveling and interviewing. He discussed the skills and knowledge that he acquired over the years that helped him avoid many pitfalls that whites often suffered when talking with blacks. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner among other things. The 1987 prize was for his non-fiction book Arab and Jew Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, written in a style and with a process much like this current book. He knows how to keep your interest; the book is 600 pages and not a text book although it was undoubtedly assigned in many classes.
Anecdotal evidence is often suggestive of certain conclusions but cannot, by its very nature, serve as proof. Enough anecdotal evidence will often urge the undertaking of a more objective research. But anecdotal evidence alone does not rise to become proof or confirmation. The validity of the book is attested to by the detail in the large number of anecdotes. He also often deals with issues from the points of view of a number of people, some black, some white, indicating the tenor of the times by displaying the range of thinking.
Mr. Shipley spends a good deal of time exploring the experiences of people at the border between black and white cultures. He wants to show how hard it has been (and is) to cross that line and for one to be successful at living and operating within the culture of the other. He relates this to experiences both races had at the times of desegregation and still have when the cultures mix. There are numerous stories of biracial children and adults who are neither black nor white.
For David Shipler the many personal histories he gathered for the book are powerful in telling about the history and memories of black-white relationships over the years. The following is one example covered in some detail in the book.
The story of Somerset Place in North Carolina is told by a black woman Dorothy Spruill Redford who traced her family back to the time her ancestors were slaves on that plantation. That historic site is online to visit at http://www.nchistoricsites.org/somers.... Somerset Homecomings that started in 1986 are events that bring together the ancestors of the slaves: http://www.nchistoricsites.org/somers... . Descendants of the plantation owner also come.
The homecomings continue to the present day and led to similar gatherings of the ancestors of slaves who lived and worked on the property owned by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as well as other locations. Ms. Redford has written two books Somerset Homecoming and Generations of Somerset Place . Historical sites that include the slavery years have become much more inclusive with details about the lives of slaves. In earlier decades, black slaves had been largely non-existent at these sites, even where slavery was a major component of the history of the time. For example, when this book was written, you heard little if anything about the fact that slaves built the U.S. Capitol Building in the District of Columbia.
A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America was published in 1997 so is sixteen years old. A lot has happened in race relations since then so this book might be considerably dated. I’m sorry to say that I don’t know enough about the subject to evaluate that very well. I do know that the Sally Hemings/Thomas Jefferson story has clarified significantly in the interim and that affirmative action has gone through many challenges and changes. There are certainly other areas of change in those sixteen years. However, to the extent that much of the book is similar to an oral history, the content is timeless.
At its publication it got a rave review from Kirkus Reviews and was a Book of the Month Club selection.
Shipler spends considerable time discussing some of the problems associated with assembling Black history, a topic that was not the focus of much academic attention at that time. He talks about Black studies programs, a popular approach at that time, versus embedding Black history into the overall history curriculum. Afrocentrism was all the rage when he was writing the book. He identifies some specific resources that he believed were the most accurate at the time. Again, remember that he is writing prior to 1997. The debate about the value of Afrocentrism as an antidote to the pervasive absence Black people in U.S. history is well covered. As he often does in this book, Shipler does an excellent job trying to cover the conflicting points of view on the issue by inserting the words of real people.
This book is just jammed with quotes and stories from hundreds of people. Well, it took him eight years to write and I bet he was still getting “That isn’t what I said!” feedback years later. (If you ever read something in the paper that you know something about, you know that there are always mistakes. When you try to put down what people say, it’s guaranteed that there will be mistakes. And Shipler is dealing with a highly charged issue so mistakes can be inflammatory. In fact Shipler talks about how the history of race relations has been altered accidentally or on purpose.
About halfway through the book Shipler takes on the 1994 book The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Society . It is fascinating to compare the GR reviews of The Bell Curve content with an average rating of 3.15 with the analysis of the premises and conclusions of the book by David Shipler. I love it when one book leads you to another as well as to additional thoughtful GR reviews. But it does fill up my TBR shelf!
Other topics included: mixed marriages; biracial children; affirmative action; integrated housing; diverse communities; racism in police departments; prejudice in the military.
Oak Park, Illinois is adjacent to Chicago and is described in the book as a successful integrated town of 50,000 people. Checking 2010 demographics, integration continues to be successful with 67% white, 22% black, 5% Asian, 4% mixed race and 7% Hispanic. These are similar to the demographics when the book was being researched. How they have managed to remain a diverse town when they are surrounded by segregation is discussed based on conversations with residents. Teaneck, New Jersey, is a similarly integrated town with demographics much like Oak Park, but one that had some racial problems that are discussed and compared with Oak Park.
The training psychodrama played out toward the end of the book was fascinating and highlighted the popularity of diversity training. The review of the training experience had plenty of detail, enough that I was brought into the book and became a part of the audience even though I could sense what was going on. It was the crescendo of racism offset by the silence of the majority of the audience. If you have a chance, read that section of the book. It starts on page 546 of the hardcover edition.
Yes, the book was published sixteen years ago and is dated in places. But the multitude of personal experiences and observations are just as accurate and informative today as they were sixteen years ago. A lot has happened in race relations in the U.S. since A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America first appeared in book stores. But its six hundred pages are still packed with relevant information. I wish I could ask David Shipler to spend another eight years updating this book. But he has researched several additional issues, resulting in new books. But I would love to see the result of an effort to update this book. The eight years he spent writing this book was an excellent investment and has paid off well for those of us who have had the good fortune to read this book. If it is in your local public library or university library, I encourage you to take a look at it. It is a big book but for the most part it is very readable.
This book makes me want to read more David K. Shipler. His research is impressive and his writing style is very accessible. Fortunately there are more of his books out there.
This book falls short of five stars only because it is dated in some areas. But that means you can get it very inexpensively used online. It is easy to give it four stars and to put his more recent books on my TBR shelf.
I am a baby-boomer who grew up in a white suburb outside of an increasingly black Detroit. “White flight” was the term and says it all about race relations at the time. Eight Mile Road was the dividing line and I lived at Fourteen Mile Road. The riots in 1967 came out to Eight Mile. Whites who had fled Detroit were afraid that “those people” might come out further into the suburbs. Some riot events gained notoriety from the book by John Hersey The Algiers Motel Incident . Whites called it a riot; blacks called it a rebellion.
I am tempted to call Mr. Shipley a social scientist but he is more a journalist. He promises at the beginning of the book that there will not be a lot of numerical data. He keeps that promise. The introduction has quite a few statistics but then true to his word, he moves to anecdotal evidence, stories from the many, many people across the country that he has talked to about race relations, present and past. This book was eight years in the making and he did a lot of traveling and interviewing. He discussed the skills and knowledge that he acquired over the years that helped him avoid many pitfalls that whites often suffered when talking with blacks. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner among other things. The 1987 prize was for his non-fiction book Arab and Jew Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, written in a style and with a process much like this current book. He knows how to keep your interest; the book is 600 pages and not a text book although it was undoubtedly assigned in many classes.
Anecdotal evidence is often suggestive of certain conclusions but cannot, by its very nature, serve as proof. Enough anecdotal evidence will often urge the undertaking of a more objective research. But anecdotal evidence alone does not rise to become proof or confirmation. The validity of the book is attested to by the detail in the large number of anecdotes. He also often deals with issues from the points of view of a number of people, some black, some white, indicating the tenor of the times by displaying the range of thinking.
Mr. Shipley spends a good deal of time exploring the experiences of people at the border between black and white cultures. He wants to show how hard it has been (and is) to cross that line and for one to be successful at living and operating within the culture of the other. He relates this to experiences both races had at the times of desegregation and still have when the cultures mix. There are numerous stories of biracial children and adults who are neither black nor white.
For David Shipler the many personal histories he gathered for the book are powerful in telling about the history and memories of black-white relationships over the years. The following is one example covered in some detail in the book.
The story of Somerset Place in North Carolina is told by a black woman Dorothy Spruill Redford who traced her family back to the time her ancestors were slaves on that plantation. That historic site is online to visit at http://www.nchistoricsites.org/somers.... Somerset Homecomings that started in 1986 are events that bring together the ancestors of the slaves: http://www.nchistoricsites.org/somers... . Descendants of the plantation owner also come.
The homecomings continue to the present day and led to similar gatherings of the ancestors of slaves who lived and worked on the property owned by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as well as other locations. Ms. Redford has written two books Somerset Homecoming and Generations of Somerset Place . Historical sites that include the slavery years have become much more inclusive with details about the lives of slaves. In earlier decades, black slaves had been largely non-existent at these sites, even where slavery was a major component of the history of the time. For example, when this book was written, you heard little if anything about the fact that slaves built the U.S. Capitol Building in the District of Columbia.
It turns out there's far less in the historical record on the subject than one might expect. Early historians of the Capitol's construction were largely indifferent to the work of common laborers, both paid and slave. Records from the time are spotty.
Only in the past 15 years or so has attention been trained on the role slaves played in constructing perhaps the nation's most important building — and the work has been led not by professional historians, but by individuals who developed a personal interest in the subject, such as retired Washington television reporter Ed Hotaling and freelance writer Bob Arnebeck.
In 2005, Congress appointed a task force to research the subject, which issued a report in conjunction with the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, finally bringing a measure of scholarly rigor to bear on the topic. Source: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-met...
A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America was published in 1997 so is sixteen years old. A lot has happened in race relations since then so this book might be considerably dated. I’m sorry to say that I don’t know enough about the subject to evaluate that very well. I do know that the Sally Hemings/Thomas Jefferson story has clarified significantly in the interim and that affirmative action has gone through many challenges and changes. There are certainly other areas of change in those sixteen years. However, to the extent that much of the book is similar to an oral history, the content is timeless.
At its publication it got a rave review from Kirkus Reviews and was a Book of the Month Club selection.
Shipler's reportage includes much concrete information garnered from both sides of the racial divide, but his primary goal is didactic and his primary audience is white. If whites gain insight through this book into what it is like to be black in America, they will also learn ``what it is like to be white,'' he writes; armed with that self-knowledge, they might then help right a society in which racial differences continue to frustrate the fulfillment of the American dream. Shipler quotes scholars and activists, but mostly he talks to ordinary Americans. He visits high schools and colleges, police stations and army barracks, boardrooms and secretarial pools, integrated neighborhoods and even integrated families. He finds that whites tend to be uncomfortable discussing race, but that it is an ever-present issue for most of the blacks he talks to. What this white man learns from black Americans makes this a stunning and major work. Source: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Shipler spends considerable time discussing some of the problems associated with assembling Black history, a topic that was not the focus of much academic attention at that time. He talks about Black studies programs, a popular approach at that time, versus embedding Black history into the overall history curriculum. Afrocentrism was all the rage when he was writing the book. He identifies some specific resources that he believed were the most accurate at the time. Again, remember that he is writing prior to 1997. The debate about the value of Afrocentrism as an antidote to the pervasive absence Black people in U.S. history is well covered. As he often does in this book, Shipler does an excellent job trying to cover the conflicting points of view on the issue by inserting the words of real people.
This book is just jammed with quotes and stories from hundreds of people. Well, it took him eight years to write and I bet he was still getting “That isn’t what I said!” feedback years later. (If you ever read something in the paper that you know something about, you know that there are always mistakes. When you try to put down what people say, it’s guaranteed that there will be mistakes. And Shipler is dealing with a highly charged issue so mistakes can be inflammatory. In fact Shipler talks about how the history of race relations has been altered accidentally or on purpose.
About halfway through the book Shipler takes on the 1994 book The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Society . It is fascinating to compare the GR reviews of The Bell Curve content with an average rating of 3.15 with the analysis of the premises and conclusions of the book by David Shipler. I love it when one book leads you to another as well as to additional thoughtful GR reviews. But it does fill up my TBR shelf!
Other topics included: mixed marriages; biracial children; affirmative action; integrated housing; diverse communities; racism in police departments; prejudice in the military.
Oak Park, Illinois is adjacent to Chicago and is described in the book as a successful integrated town of 50,000 people. Checking 2010 demographics, integration continues to be successful with 67% white, 22% black, 5% Asian, 4% mixed race and 7% Hispanic. These are similar to the demographics when the book was being researched. How they have managed to remain a diverse town when they are surrounded by segregation is discussed based on conversations with residents. Teaneck, New Jersey, is a similarly integrated town with demographics much like Oak Park, but one that had some racial problems that are discussed and compared with Oak Park.
The training psychodrama played out toward the end of the book was fascinating and highlighted the popularity of diversity training. The review of the training experience had plenty of detail, enough that I was brought into the book and became a part of the audience even though I could sense what was going on. It was the crescendo of racism offset by the silence of the majority of the audience. If you have a chance, read that section of the book. It starts on page 546 of the hardcover edition.
Yes, the book was published sixteen years ago and is dated in places. But the multitude of personal experiences and observations are just as accurate and informative today as they were sixteen years ago. A lot has happened in race relations in the U.S. since A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America first appeared in book stores. But its six hundred pages are still packed with relevant information. I wish I could ask David Shipler to spend another eight years updating this book. But he has researched several additional issues, resulting in new books. But I would love to see the result of an effort to update this book. The eight years he spent writing this book was an excellent investment and has paid off well for those of us who have had the good fortune to read this book. If it is in your local public library or university library, I encourage you to take a look at it. It is a big book but for the most part it is very readable.
This book makes me want to read more David K. Shipler. His research is impressive and his writing style is very accessible. Fortunately there are more of his books out there.
This book falls short of five stars only because it is dated in some areas. But that means you can get it very inexpensively used online. It is easy to give it four stars and to put his more recent books on my TBR shelf.
October 19, 2007
I chose to read this book after reading David Shipler's The Working Poor. The subject matter of race relations between blacks and whites was particularly interesting to me. I liked that the author was able to get candid responses from the people he interviewed. Overall, the book successfully illustrates a lot of misconceptions that blacks and whites have about one another and the deep racial divides that do continue to exist in America long after slavery and segregation. This book seems promising because it could open a greater dialogue between blacks and whites and increase cultural competency, but also a bit depressing because we clearly have a long way to go.
July 30, 2024
It was interesting to see both perspectives from black and white Americans. Since this book is somewhat older it was interesting to see how the color conflict has evolved and the similarities that still exist. It was a bit repetitive at times which made it a bit hard to get through, but the content was there.
September 13, 2023
GPS was a novelty when this was written and yet... this book is as relevant as ever.
"There is nothing political about combating racism unless you think that racial bigotry occupies a legitimate place on the American political spectrum."
"There is nothing political about combating racism unless you think that racial bigotry occupies a legitimate place on the American political spectrum."
November 1, 2017
Had to skim portions, as it was quite dense, but Shipler offers a thorough examination of race relations in the U.S. Privileged whites need to wake up and smell the coffee!
February 22, 2018
Very good but very much of its time (1997).
April 8, 2020
An interesting book. Reads somewhat like a college textbook. A little redundant in parts but with many valuable perspectives. B
December 11, 2025
I wish I had read this book earlier. This is one of the best analyses of race relations in the U.S. that I have read and captures the nuances of the relationships between blacks and whites.
July 16, 2008
Yeah, it was quite the random day at the library. Filly was wandering among the shelves and this was at eye level and so I grabbed it. I like black people, I like white people, I like America... I'm gonna give it a whirl.
UPDATE April 27, 2008
This book went back to the library. I read the intro, I read the chapter on marriage, I read my due date. There just wasn't time. And it just wasn't making me think about things. Either race relations have changed in the past 10 years or I am perfectly enlightened. Maybe it's a generational thing or maybe I'm unable to see the world through the eyes of another group and lack the required empathy. It just seemed sort of obvious.
I think, perhaps, that the world has been flooded with content. I've read a lot of things since 1997 and people have written even more. Race relations are a huge topic that has been tackled by hundreds of people in multiple media. The book just wasn't that enlightening. I probably would have liked it a lot ten years ago. It's quite possible I didn't read the salient chapter, but even the introduction was giving off a "duh" vibe.
I don't think the topic of race relations is taboo anymore. Lots of the unspoken issues between whites and blacks in America are being spoken about now. Ten years is a really long time.
UPDATE April 27, 2008
This book went back to the library. I read the intro, I read the chapter on marriage, I read my due date. There just wasn't time. And it just wasn't making me think about things. Either race relations have changed in the past 10 years or I am perfectly enlightened. Maybe it's a generational thing or maybe I'm unable to see the world through the eyes of another group and lack the required empathy. It just seemed sort of obvious.
I think, perhaps, that the world has been flooded with content. I've read a lot of things since 1997 and people have written even more. Race relations are a huge topic that has been tackled by hundreds of people in multiple media. The book just wasn't that enlightening. I probably would have liked it a lot ten years ago. It's quite possible I didn't read the salient chapter, but even the introduction was giving off a "duh" vibe.
I don't think the topic of race relations is taboo anymore. Lots of the unspoken issues between whites and blacks in America are being spoken about now. Ten years is a really long time.
March 17, 2013
A very, very accurate description of where we are in America today with race relations. Shipler is an excellent writer. The book may be a bit lengthy. By the last quarter of the book, I'd pretty much gotten all I was going to get from the book. The last quarter was kind of a "slog on thru" to finish the book. If there is a failing it's that he perhaps relies overly much on a small core of interviews that he keeps comming back to, regardless of the different themes he explores in different chapters. He also seems to use a lot of sources that are employed in the race-relation industry as moderators, facillitators, instructors. If he ever does an update or revison to the book he might want to consider interviewing a couple of dedicated, committed, white-Aryan-supremisists as well as a couple of still incarcerated black gang members. Views from the extreme edges of our society have been ignored.
December 24, 2007
This book takes everything that people don't want to say out loud--perceptions and prejudices so buried that they are unspeakable but influential in everyday life--and exposes and explores them in great detail, in many different contexts. The author takes the reader to school, to the streets, to police stations and living rooms and military bases and offices. Like any good journalist, he takes a lot of time to talk with people, and the things that come out of their mouths can be shocking, hopeful, enlightening, enraged, ironic, and yes, even that word that whites and blacks throw at each other all the time, "ignorant" all the while contributing to the author's pursuit of the basic question, what defines and maintains the very divisive color line in the USA? I was impressed and possibly forever changed by this book.
August 15, 2020
If you want to understand what is going on at this moment with race relations. If you want to know what happens when blacks and whites intersect in the United States. Read this book. Yes it was published in 1997, but sadly nothing has changed. Easy to read and touched on too many topics, subjects, and items that I have always wondered about, but never really looked into. I know that the book is really long, but if you truly have an interest in race relations I promise, you will not be able to put this one down.
April 20, 2008
This is a wonderful read on all aspects of racism in America--from both sides of the fence. It made me rethink my own prejudices (and we all have some) and uncover new (to me) and somewhat disturbing patterns of thought toward other races. The book won't fix the gaps between the races, but if enough people were to read it and be made aware of the problems, some good would come out of it.
February 12, 2008
I liked how Shipler addresses the ways in which we, as different races, speak past each other without really understanding the others. Also found really interesting his examples of unseen ways that racism is institutionalized.
April 19, 2007
At 600+ pages, a tad too long. Great writer. Must have a great rapport with his interview subjects.
October 31, 2007
This is a really great book. I strongly recommend this to anyone who lives in America or wants to understand America.
March 13, 2011
Extremely thoroughly documented and well told tale of race in America.
Read
July 30, 2011Shipler takes, once again, a difficult topic it places his findings in real-world situations.
August 9, 2015
Wow. Dense and heavy. A bit dated, but still so very relevant.
May 15, 2008
A long read...Made me feel like you can't win no matter what...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews