The Shame of the Nation Audiobook By Jonathan Kozol cover art

The Shame of the Nation

The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

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The Shame of the Nation

By: Jonathan Kozol
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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“The nation needs to be confronted with the crime that we’re committing and the promises we are betraying. This is a book about betrayal of the young, who have no power to defend themselves. It is not intended to make readers comfortable.”

Over the past several years, Jonathan Kozol has visited nearly 60 public schools. Virtually everywhere, he finds that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the 15 years since federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. First, a state of nearly absolute apartheid now prevails in thousands of our schools. The segregation of black children has reverted to a level that the nation has not seen since 1968. Few of the students in these schools know white children any longer. Second, a protomilitary form of discipline has now emerged, modeled on stick-and-carrot methods of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons but targeted exclusively at black and Hispanic children. And third, as high-stakes testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal education in our inner-city schools has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand by schools that serve the mainstream of society.

Filled with the passionate voices of children and their teachers and some of the most revered and trusted leaders in the black community, The Shame of the Nation is a triumph of firsthand reporting that pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the Bush administration. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens.


From The Shame of the Nation

“I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations,” the president said in his campaign for reelection in September 2004. “It’s working. It’s making a difference.” It is one of those deadly lies, which, by sheer repetition, is at length accepted by large numbers of Americans as, perhaps, a rough approximation of the truth. But it is not the truth, and it is not an innocent misstatement of the facts. It is a devious appeasement of the heartache of the parents of the poor and, if it is not forcefully resisted and denounced, it is going to lead our nation even further in a perilous direction.


Also available as a Random House AudioBook and an eBook Racism & Discrimination Politics & Government Social Sciences Education Social justice Discrimination Political Science Student

Critic reviews

Praise for Jonathan Kozol

“Jonathan’s struggle is noble. What he says must be heard. His outcry must shake our nation out of its guilty indifference.” —Elie Wiesel

“Among the many virtues of Jonathan Kozol’s strong and often beautiful books is that we cannot forget for even an instant that the poor are of our kind and live but a moment away. . . . There must be something special about Kozol—a warmth, a gentleness, a kind of mournful decency—that brings out the extraordinary in others.” —Kai Erikson, The Nation

“Today’s most eloquent spokesman for America’s disenfranchised.” —Chicago Sun-Times
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Wow! Such a well presented and eye opening account of the struggles children of color face in trying to get a decent education!

You would think it was a story about the days “long ago” and the fact it isn’t is heartbreaking!

The book might be a challenge to get through in hard copy, but the narrator does such a FANTASTIC job, I was riveted to even the driest presentation of data.

The story is a perfect balance of children, teachers, parents and the system to really open your eyes if you, like me, grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood and through poor, attended an all white public school.

I STRONGLY recommend this for everyone, and especially those considering going into education, as he presents examples of teachers who, against strong odds, are still making a huge difference in the lives of children, BUT... we MUST make it better and easier for our educators to do so!

Should be mandatory reading!

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Wow, what an important and informative read. I highly recommend this book, we need to be paying attention to this issue as a nation.

important and informative

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This book changed my life. I teach its message to my college students. I will carry it with me until the shameful flame of injustice has been annihilated. My only criticism is the reader was very one note and it needed some variation.

Changed my life.

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I found this book to be extremely inspiring. I live in a middle classtown in Minnesota,far from inner-city schools and totally unnaware tha issues such as these still managed to exist. Mr. Kozol does a wonderful job of illustrating the innocence and wonder of the children most affected by inequality and I would reccommend this book to anyone.

Thank You

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I was a student in, an educator of, and the parent of two students that has and will attend, a deeply segregated school in one of the United States most liberal cities-- the New York City public schools system. I was recently told by an admissions aide in a district 11 Family Welcome center, a NYCDOE center that allows parents to register their children to district 8 and 11 schools, that I could not enroll my son, who is a soon-to-be kindergarten student, in a school that was much closer to my home. This school reserved a waitlist that was highly selective to families of whom resided in the private homes of Morris Park, unlike myself who lives in Parkchester. Parkchester children are all dumped in P.S. 106. For me to get my child in PS/MS 498 the principal would have to meet me and sign off on it. But I'm Black, so I am a victim of New York City's apartheid school system!

This book is a sad reminder that NOTHING has changed! In fact, schools are more segregated now then ever before. I recommend this book for everyone. Whether you're an educator, a pastor, a racist, a saint, or a cynic, this book is for you!

Tears, tears, and more tears!

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