I remember hearing about these programs when I was growing up, but never really gave them any thought until I started college.I really can't believe that my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents generation actually thought they were doing something so noble and uplifting! It makes me laugh at how pathetic it was, and how little things have changed over my life time. In college I learned more about these programs, settlement houses. Started in the 1800's, the founders and workers at these establishments, mostly middle and upper class women, actually thought that poor immigrants problems were that they couldn't fit a ten course meal or do fine needle work! Sometimes white culture just cracks me up, if it wasn't so sad. Sesame Street was developed to help inner city children catch up to their suburban counterparts. Only, most of the inner city children didn't have tv's and Sesame Street just widened the divide. Not a real well thought out program, but white kids loved it! Well written and insightful book! Kudos Toby Miller Shearer!

The subject of this book is of great interest to me as I am a University Professor concerned with issues of social justice and particularly anti-racism. This title is a history of the USA summer home stays originally intended to offer respite in the country to deprived urban children and the way in which the facility became racialised. It seems however that the author of the book has studied this topic for a higher degree and while the research is detailed and interesting the writing style is somewhat hindered by not having been changed from the college thesis format for a wider audience. In particular the writer does not seem to have given much consideration to an audience outside of the USA who may not be familiar with either the home stay project or much of the legislation and institutions referred to throughout.

Two Weeks Every Summer gives an overview of the Fresh Air program and race relations. Although the contents are somewhat repetitive, readers will come away with an increased understanding of the participants and their experiences. Pairing Two Weeks Every Summer with the novel, The Mare, by Mary Glaitskill, would be a rewarding reading experience.

This book gave an in depth look at a subject which many North Americans have little to no knowledge of. While I had vaguely understood the fresh air projects it had never been something that I studied in depth. As with anything regarding race relations, stories have very distinct sides. The child and the host both have different goals. The child's is one of survival, while the host is one of forced change, whether they see it that way or not.

A word to the wary, the language of this book is more suited the the academic set but it not inaccessible to the general public. If the subject interests you then I would certainly suggest you give it a shot.

From 1939 into the 1970s, Fresh Air programs intended by Progressives to expose urban children to the outdoors shifted their focus to African-American and Hispanic children, sending them out to volunteer host families for two weeks "in the country." As one might imagine, this was fraught with problems--to get donors, the organization had to portray urban living and families as disgusting and unworthy, hosts far preferred girls to boys, and shied away from kids as soon as they hit puberty because of concerns about sex and crime, white liberals felt absolved of further civil rights actions after hosting a kid, no one was policing for abuse and they were ignoring it when kids reported it, white rural families did little to defend their guests and were ignorant of basic things like African-American hair care. Shearer, working without the organization's official archives, which refused her access, has reconstructed a program that *sounded* really good at the time, but was more reflective of donors' wishes to be seen as lifting up benighted urban youths (but not scary ones, or sassy ones, or ones that were TOO urban) rather than really doing things that showed results.