A review by andipants
Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen
4.0
This is a well-researched book on an important and often overlooked topic. While redlining and racially exclusive suburbs have been starting to get some attention in progressive circles in recent years, I've seen very little discussion of independent, racially homogeneous small towns, except perhaps to write them off as hopelessly closed-minded and backward. These characteristics often seem to be treated as inevitable, the natural order of things, but this book goes to sometimes dizzying lengths to demonstrate that no, the racial distribution was not always this way, and yes, the change was absolutely conscious and intentional. My own hometown is mentioned multiple times as an example, and while I'm not surprised in the least, it certainly came as new information to me. His discussion of "knowing and not knowing" definitely hit home for me (both figuratively and literally). If we want to address our country's race problems, we must be able to accurately diagnose their causes and contributing factors, and this book is a vital contribution to that conversation.
My one criticism is that it felt overly long and sometimes repetitive. I think a lot of the points could have been made just as effectively in a shorter book, or even perhaps some long-form journalism. Then again, these are important points and there's something to be said for really hammering them home. That the author provides multiple illustrative examples for most of his claims and preemptively addresses likely questions and objections certainly demonstrates the breadth of his research and the thorough work that has gone into crafting the arguments. It does make for a slow and sometimes depressing read, though with the subject matter, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
My one criticism is that it felt overly long and sometimes repetitive. I think a lot of the points could have been made just as effectively in a shorter book, or even perhaps some long-form journalism. Then again, these are important points and there's something to be said for really hammering them home. That the author provides multiple illustrative examples for most of his claims and preemptively addresses likely questions and objections certainly demonstrates the breadth of his research and the thorough work that has gone into crafting the arguments. It does make for a slow and sometimes depressing read, though with the subject matter, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise.