The Strike That Changed New York

“In this fascinating volume, Podair . . . brilliantly chronicles the events and far-reaching impact of the infamous, racially charged 1968 teacher strike that shut down the New York City public schools. . . . Podair’s vivid account of this debilitating breakdown of trust reads more like tragedy than history. It offers great insight into the racial separatism that school systems nationwide struggle with to this day.”—David Ruenzel, Teacher Magazine

“Jerald Podair’s new book does an admirable job of telling all sides of the story itself in a clear and compelling fashion”—Richard D. Kahlenberg, Washington Monthly

“Podair does a fine job of untangling the various threads of this complex story, which illuminates the nuances of racial politics in the post civil rights era within the context of the pluralistic concerns and conflicts arising in a key northern city.”—John A. Kirk, American Studies

"Podair deftly weaves a complicated story about class and race, labor and civil rights. . . . There are no faultless heroes or thoroughly evil villains here—only human beings struggling to make sense of their world and achieve justice as they understand it. This quality distinguishes Podair’s book from many other civil rights and labor histories. Highly recommended."—Choice

"[This] well-written and admirably balanced book will most likely stand as the definitive account of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis for some time. . . . Future scholars of New York history, as well as those who want to understand 1960s American, will find Podair’s engrossing and judicious book indispensable.”—Vincent J. Cannato, New York History

Winner of the Allan Nevins Prize awarded by the Society of American Historians

“An engrossing, astute, and scrupulously fair book on the bitter, school-based racial conflicts that shocked and transformed New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. Jerald Podair has finally given those conflicts and the city in which they occurred the history that they deserve.”—Gary Gerstle, author of American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century

“Podair’s telling of the racially polarizing Ocean Hill–Brownsville crisis is outstanding: clearly written, deeply researched, and admirably balanced.”—James T. Patterson, Brown University

“The eruption over the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district in 1968 was a gut-wrenching affair that forever changed the politics of race and liberalism in New York City. Only with the passage of three decades, and with the arrival of a greatly talented and fair-minded historian, is it possible to begin making sense of what happened. No one will agree with everything in Jerald Podair’s excellent book. But everyone interested in comprehending the furies of the American 1960s will need to read and reflect on it.”—Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and Director of the Program in American Studies, Princeton University

“This well-conceived and deeply researched book raises serious, difficult questions. Jerald Podair advances our knowledge of the emergence of two New Yorks—one white, one black—and opens the door to potentially illuminating and undoubtedly painful, discussions.”—Arnold R. Hirsch, University of New Orleans