Sundown Towns

A Hidden Dimension of American Racism

By: James Loewen

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Sundown Towns examines thousands of all-white American towns that were - and still are, in some instances - racially exclusive by design.

Professor emeritus at the University of Vermont, James W. Loewen won the National Book Award for his New York Times best seller Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.

©2005 James W. Loewen (P)2008 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Deserves to become an instant classic in the fields of American race relations, urban studies and cultural geography." ( Washington Post Book World)
"Sure to become a landmark in several fields and a sure bet among Loewen's many fans." ( Publishers Weekly)

An unsettling, heartbeakng, very important work

that ends, thankfully, on hopeful notes with thoughtful ideas for action. I heard things about neighborhoods near my home town that were painful, but I also heard things that help me look at the diversity in my current neighborhood with hope for the future.

Explains why people sometimes live where they do

What other book might you compare Sundown Towns to and why?

Lies My Teacher told Me

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book changed the way I thought about American towns and the geography of race. Loewen's work is phenomenal and a compelling read. Eye-opening and something every American should read.

Time for Hard Truth...

This book was a real eye-opener. A social history and study of Sundown towns, what they truly are, and how they have become so racially segregated. Reading it made me sick- with the practice and with myself, for not standing up to it. Steeped in it, I did not like it, but never did anything about it. I am ashamed of that.

My father was a carpenter, and we moved back and forth from the Chicago area to north central Arkansas with the trades. In 1956 or 1957, my dad showed me a sign at the county line that said, "nigger, don't let the sun set on your head". It was a word I had never heard him say, and I could tell that he found it distasteful.

Another time that we lived in northern Arkansas, we tolerated verbal attacks, and even a rotted deer carcass tossed down our back stairs. We were white, but from the north, so we were treated as "fureigners." The neighbors made it quite clear that we were no wanted there. I hated it, hated the people who did it, and hated the area in which we lived. I spent high school in the area west of Chicago, a suburban area that bordered the cornfields out west. My parents never made negative comments about other groups of people, but I never really understood why there were only white people around us.

My grandfather lived in Berwyn, Illinois. He was unashamedly racist, and never gave reasons. I never heard about riots or lynchings or threats that drove out people of color, from him or from history classes. My parents talked about the sundown signs later-when I was in my teens, during the civil rights movement- and I naively thought that this entire attitude was in the past, or soon would be.

When I graduated from my all white high school, my parents moved to Arkansas again. As soon as I could, I moved away. It never dawned on me that most of the areas that I lived in throughout my life had skewed populations.

Mr. Loewen's study is compelling and clear, and this book should be a 'must read' for every student. THIS is the side of history that has fostered fights about confederate statues and their value. This study study gives voice to an insidious process that has been going on in our country for far too long. We must face our own racism, bring it out into the light of day, and stop it.

"Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry"

Incredibly eye opening

Changed my entire view of America, past and present. Makes me understand where I was raised in a whole new light.

Intentional Segregation in Housing

This is a surprising history of sundown towns in America. The surprise was the sheer volume of deplorable places, as well as the locations. Throughout the history of America, there have been more sundown towns in the north and west than the traditional south.

The main weakness of this book is that it was published in the early 2000s. Whereas, the author may naively address ways to integrate America in order that we all thrive and progress forward, his hopeful approach seems impossible under the current conditions in America since the 2016 presidential election. The degree of anti-Black, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, homophonic vitriol makes his optimistic conclusions seem as far away as the early civil rights movement. Nonetheless, this book is filled with abundant information to assist in the understanding of how individual communities have aided in the segregation of America.