Synopses & Reviews
Integration Nation takes readers on a spirited and compelling cross-country journey, introducing us to the people challenging Americas xenophobic impulses by welcoming immigrants and collaborating with the foreign-born as they become integral members of their new communities. In Utah, we meet educators who connect newly arrived Spanish-speaking students and U.S.-born English-speaking students, who share classrooms and learn in two languages. In North Carolina, we visit the nations fastest-growing community-development credit union, serving immigrants and U.S.- born depositors and helping to lower borrowing thresholds and crime rates alike.
In recent years, politicians in a handful of local communities and states have passed laws and regulations designed to make it easier to deport unauthorized immigrants or to make their lives so unpleasant that theyd just leave. The medias unrelenting focus on these ultimately self-defeating measures created the false impression that these politicians speak for most of America. They dont.
Integration Nation movingly reminds us that we each have choices to make about how to think and act in the face of the rapid cultural transformation that has reshaped the United States. Giving voice to people who choose integration over exclusion, who opt for open-heartedness instead of fear, Integration Nation is a desperately needed road map for a nation still finding its way beyond anti-immigrant hysteria to higher ground.
Review
Praise for Eatons The Children in Room E4:"A graceful and fluent writer."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A spectacular accomplishment. A wonderful, complex, subtle, and intelligent work."
Jonathan Kozol
"Susan Eaton brings a passion for justice, an eye for human detail, and the skill of a fine storyteller."
Adam Hochschild
Few journalists take on the work of exploring complex social problems by entering the lives of those affected by them. And fewer still are journalists who have the writerly knack of telling stories beautifully and compellingly while braiding together the many strands of information rigorous research imparts. But Eaton has it all: artistry, intelligence, authority, social concern, and soul. The Children in Room E4 is our lucky gift.”
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
In The Children in Room E4, Eaton mobilizes her formidable talents to create a vivid and compelling account of struggles in Connecticut that are national in significance.”
Randall Kennedy
A vivid and compelling book. To a subject of daunting complexity, Susan Eaton has brought a remarkable clarity of vision and also a deeply humane spirit, the kind of spirit that some, thank God, still struggle to bring to public education.”
Tracy Kidder
Praise for Eatons The Other Boston Busing Story:
"Susan Eaton provides compelling new insights on both the short- and long-term effects of a desegregated school experience."
William Julius Wilson
About the Author
Susan E. Eaton is the research director at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. She is the author, most recently, of the Children in Room E4. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, and many other publications. She lives in Boston.