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5 out of 5
by
Jill
from
Philadelphia, PA | Mar 3, 2008
Wow. I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book, since I tried one of the author's earlier books, and liked the concept, but felt that it was a little too academic. This book, however, I thought was an amazing read.
Sudhir Venkatesh, while a graduate student in sociology, accidentally finds himself befriending a gang leader, JT, at the height of the crack epidemic. The gang leader gives him an unprecented look at both life in the gang, and life in the projects for everyone where it is a major struggle to survive.
I squirmed at times while reading this, because there's some moral ambiguity to a researcher being party to drive by shootings, beatings, crack production and sales, and extortion. I also feel a little uncomfortable with using these subjects as research, because there is the question of informed consent (it's really unclear whether the subjects understand what the research will be used for and that they won't personally gain anything from it). This also seems to make the writer squirm, which does make me feel better.
It also struck me that there are lots of things involved in poverty that never occurred to me. Obviously, people go hungry, don't have enough money for basics, live in substandard housing, etc, which is bad enough, but I never thought about, for example, how many women are routinely abused (sexually or physically) and how the poor are often extorted (there are bribes for public services, protection payments, and cuts taken from under the table income for the privilege of working). It's a great reminder to someone comfortably in the middle class that climbing out of poverty is much more difficult than anyone not in that situation can imagine.
I also found myself surprised at how likable some of the "bad" characters were. Yes, JT is a drug dealer, who resorts to physical violence to get his way. Yet somehow, he comes across as somewhat sympathetic- he cares deeply about his children, does nice things for the buildings inhabitants, is college educated, and is a real entrepenaur with leadership skills. His methodology can be repugnant, and you find yourself routing for him to get out of the gang.
Read this book- you won't regret it.
6 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Alex
from
San Francisco, CA | Mar 18, 2008
This is a book that I’m glad I heard about first on the radio, because it is not represented well by its title or cover. The Sudhir Venkatesh on the book jacket, in his vintage leather coat with the collar up, arms folded in tough guy stance in front of derelict seeming housing projects slightly out of focus in the back ground, seems like a wannabe bad ass. And that’s not at all the impression you get from the memoir inside the book.
And the title—“Gang Leader for a Day”—makes it sound like you’re going to get a sensational fantasy trip into a criminal netherworld, like playing the Godfather on your Playstation. (Which is a good time in its own right.) But in fact, you get an interesting look into a world that exists in every major city in America, that we use as an avatar for all kinds of social ills, but that few people on the outside really go to lengths to understand.
In a way, the book recalls <a href="http://www.hbo.com/wire>The Wire</a>. The street gang running the drug trade is well represented here, and there are side trips into the worlds of the police and other mebers of the community: A pastor, a housing authority leader, the head of a community center, single mothers, older women, shopkeepers and unemployed (or marginally employed, or more often not-employed-in-any-legal-sense) men who occupied the Robert Taylor Homes and its surrounding precincts. But unlike The Wire (which is also great in its own right) which pits these factions against each other, Venkatesh paints a much more cooperative picture. There are multiple power structures, and different authority figures. The interaction and co-dependence of the groups are no less complicated that those of a small city or busy urban neighborhood, even if much of it goes on in a way that is invisible from the outside. It’s a picture that could only emerge by spending years in the projects, which Venkatesh does—the better part of the decade.
Maybe the best thing about the book that I can say is that it made me want to be a sociologist. (This happens to me from time to time—when I read Mountains Beyond Mountains, I had a brief infatuation with the idea of studying medical anthropology.) If you’ve ever worked in a job or been in a situation where you have to try and quickly ingratiate yourself with people who are not like you, you’ll identify with Venkatesh. Showing up with a clipboard and ponytail and interrupting a drug deal to ask what it feels like to be black and poor is hardly a show of bravado, but his earnestness, sincerity, and willingness to connect is palpable. Though he has published more scholarly works based on this field work (and clearly done well in the academy as a result) this book shows that he also recognizes the power and impetus of recording life in stories, not just statistics. It’s what brings humanity to his research subjects, and levels the playing field, both for Venkatesh (who comes to recognize himself as a hustler like most everyone else in Robert Taylor) to the rest of us who get not just a voyeuristic thrill out of his accounts, but a chance to drop the stereotypes and see the real human complexity of his subjects.
2 people found this review helpful
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3 out of 5
by
Caroline
from
Chicago, IL | Aug 18, 2009
I had mixed feelings about Venkatesh's book. It exposed and detailed a world that I knew nothing about, and peaked my curiosity to look into the subject matter of gangs and life in the projects in greater detail. Venkatesh did an excellent job of explaining the inner workings of life in the projects - the hierarchy in a gang, how a gang works with the surrounding community, the role the police play . . . the economics that drives everything.
However, he brought up a lot of important issues but made no effort to discuss potential solutions. He calls himself a "rogue sociologist". I would agree with his use of the word rogue to describe himself: "a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel". However, I wouldn't be so quick to call him a sociologist. My understanding of what sociologists do, is studying people in society with the ultimate goal of making advancements in how we function as a society. Instead, Vankatesh is simply a self serving and misleading reporter. He goes into the Robert Taylor homes allowing people to believe that he is there to help them. Instead he uses these people to make him stand out to his U of C teachers - ultimately landing teaching jobs at Harvard and Columbia. He pushed himself ahead at the expense of deeply impoverished people who had kindly taken great risks exposing the details of their lives to him. When he had completed his research he left all of his friends behind - clearly not understanding the bigger picture.
Obviously, Vankatesh's story is an interesting one: a U of C student hanging out in the ghetto. The more amazing stories though are those of the people actually living there. But the focus never really goes off of Vankatesh. Overall, Gang Leader for a Day touches upon many important issues. But it could have done so much more. Instead of just reporting on issues he should have gone into greater depth . . . answered more questions . . . offered solutions.
And how does Robert Taylor compare to other housing projects in Chicago and elsewhere? How do the Black Kings differ from other gangs - past and present? How does statistical research of the area compare to his ethnographer's approach? It's a blockbuster book. And like many blockbusters it only goes skin deep - though it does tell a fascinating story. It just needs a different narrator.
2 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Jackmccullough
from
Montpelier, VT | Feb 7, 2009
What do people know about the Robert Taylor Homes? Mostly that it was considered to be one of the worst places in the country.
What do people know about the people who lived there? Almost nothing.
People in America need to know more about the lives of poor people. In this book, Sudhir Venkatesh recounts his six years of spending time with gang leaders, community leaders, and families at the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. He stumbles into his situation by encountering a group of young black men in the stairwell of a housing project, where he starts out by trying to administer a survey he composed. First question: "How does it feel to be black and poor?" (This is not the last display of the shocking naivete he brings to his project, sometimes to the detriment or even danger of himself and his subjects.) He quickly learns that he isn't going to learn anything by asking surveys like that, and his new approach, hanging out with the leader of the gang that controls the crack business in the building, pays dividends.
I rank this book up there with Praying for Sheetrock in its ability to give us an intimate look at how poor people really live in the United States.
The one shortcoming I noted was that I unintentionally got the audio version of this book, and I thought that the reader, although not bad, tended to ham it up a little too much for my taste.
1 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Jamie
from
Baltimore, MD | Jun 15, 2008
After Lee Anne recommended this to me, I then uncovered his "what do real thugs think about the Wire" on the Freakonomics blog. So I finally read it. I can safely say I would have read it in 1 sitting if I hadn't taken breaks to watch the Euro. It is THAT good and currently sitting as my favorite book of the year.
It's a fascinating peak into "real people" in the Robert Taylor housing projects, and it would be depressing (so many instances in which people accept such horrible injustice as just their fate) but it is mostly simply fascinating. I think Venkatesh really DID capture information that public policy makers could use to aid in urban poverty, but lets be honest, everyone is in on the scams. And they're pervasive.
This formed a nice contrast between A Hope in the Unseen, which I'd recently read. That book takes a kid from the inner city and follows him on a journey to Brown. Unfortunately, I found most of this book dry and dull, while Gang Leader for a day crackled with energy.
Nonfiction booklist.
1 people found this review helpful