Tamar Jacoby was born in New York City in 1954. She graduated from Yale University in 1976 and worked as a staff member of The New York Review of Books, a senior editor of Newsweek, and as deputy editor of the op-ed page of The New York Times. Her writings about race relations, particularly integration, have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, Commentary, Dissent, The Nation, The New Republic, and The New York Times Book Review.

Jacoby's 1998 book is titled Someone Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration. It is the story of the failed attempt of integration. She moves from telling the story of New York in the 1960s, Detroit in the 1970s, and Atlanta in the 1980s and 1990s. She cites a number of factors for the failure, yet steers clear of the traditional blame game. Through careful and exhaustive research, she presents a myriad of perspectives on the subject, all of which seem to end in frustration.

She also concludes that the term integration has become an idea of the past. In a June 28th, 1998 Washington Post article, she writes: "The word has a quaint ring today -- a relic of another era." Integration has created instead various groups of minorities. "The word 'brother'" she wrote, "evokes not the brotherhood of man but the solidarity of color." Jacoby discusses various causes for the disintegration of integration and writes, "[W]hatever the benefits of the new separatism in promoting pride and self-esteem, the overlay of anger and alienation that comes with it is poisoning our lives, both black and white."

For whites, she says, "the new separatism has become an excuse for ignorance, indifference and worse." She is hopeful, however, that America might eventually transcend the issue of color and become united by share national beliefs and agendas. She writes: "Have Americans really given up their common humanity? My research tells me no. Despite their anger and alienation, I believe that most blacks want in -- and most whites still want to do what they can to truly make this a land of opportunity and equal access. But if most Americans still believe in integration, they don't know how to reconcile that belief with identity politics and diversity."

Jacoby, who lives in New Jersey, has been an instructor at the New School for Social Research, Yale University, and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relation and the New York City Human Rights Coalition, and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy.