Fiasco: The Battle for Boston

The story of the movement to desegregate Boston’s public schools through busing—and the backlash that followed.




In 1974, a federal judge ruled that Boston’s public schools were unconstitutionally segregated. The solution? A controversial experiment in desegregation known as “busing,” which would take children from majority-white schools and bus them to predominantly Black schools, and vice versa. What followed was a year of upheaval, violence, and fierce protests, as Boston became a battleground for the heated national debate over school integration and racism in the North.




In this dramatic audiobook full of surprising twists and fascinating characters, journalist Leon Neyfakh (co-creator of the podcasts Slow Burn and Fiasco) unpacks the history of busing in Boston and brings to life the human stories behind the headlines by talking to the people who saw what happened with their own eyes. Combining historical analysis with firsthand accounts, Fiasco explores not only the impact of busing in Boston, but the larger questions about race, politics, and the struggle for equal education that continue to reverberate in America half a century later.




For a list of books, articles, and documentaries used to research Fiasco: The Battle for Boston, please visit bit.ly/fiascoboston.




Fiasco: The Battle for Boston was hosted and produced by Leon Neyfakh for Prologue Projects. The executive producer was Andrew Parsons, with reporting and production by Sam Graham-Felsen, Madeline Kaplan, Ula Kulpa, and Soraya Shockley.