In this thought-provoking analysis of the Fresh Air organization, Shearer (history, Univ. of Montana) describes philanthropic attempts to provide two weeks of vacation from the "unhealthy and dangerous cities" to mostly white suburban and rural counties for mainly minority city children from the 1940s to the 1970s. Initially a summer vacation program for poor white city children in the late 19th century, Fresh Air, still in existence, responded to population changes by catering to white hosts’ requests for young innocent girls, ages 5 to 12, to assuage their fears of Hispanic and black teenage boys. The organization also established camps for boys and disabled children. Fresh Air curtailed return visits for the youth to prevent interracial liaisons between teenagers. Alumni interviews reveal racial tensions and the education the children provided their hosts about civil rights and city life. Rejected from examining the Fresh Air archives, the author relies on the organization’s published materials and interviews with participants. Despite the strong criticism, some alumni benefitted from the program. For collections on social history, urban history, history of childhood, and race in the US.
~N. Zmora, Choice
Tobin Miller Shearer investigates how Fresh Air programs’ overwhelmingly white leadership and supporters reckoned with race during the period of demographic transition between 1939 and 1979... Two Weeks Every Summer offers us a valuable story about the racial politics and consequences of childhood reform efforts and the role of children in civil rights activism. Shearer’s criticism of Fresh Air reform is convincing, and present day organizations should follow his suggestion to look honestly at their histories.
~Marika Plater, Rutgers University, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth
A meticulously researched examination of the "Fresh Air movement" sponsored by newspapers and social service agencies from the 1870s into the present.... One of the strengths of Shearer's narrative is that he is able to shed light on unexamined assumptions about poverty, race, innocence, and the city and its peoples while also providing clear evidence that there were also people who, when faced with unexpected challenges to their tangled generosity, learned something new and constructive.... An impressive and important book.
~American Historical Review
This book is a must read for those who may desire an understanding of the sojourn experiences of children who were selected to participate in the Fresh Air programs during a turbulent era in America's history. Through the author's telescopic lens of archival evidence and oral histories, readers are offered glimpse of those telling experiences, in particular, the last chapter that provided oral histories from two Fresh Air participants.
~The Journal of African American History
