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Books Related to Gang Leader for a Day Sudhir Venkatesh - ISBN: 0713999934
Sociology Never Seemed So Utterly Compelling - Rated
I came across this book through a radio interview with its author. He came across well and the people on the programme couldn't praise it highly enough. Even then the thought of reading a sociological book about gang culture in Chicago still seemed a bit of risk. After all sociology is a bit, well, 80's.
Well this is one gamble that pays off. You do get a decent ammount of idea about how Prof. Venkatesh went about his study and also something about the process he should (and sometimes didn't) follow in order to get his research done. You also get an awful lot more. Orwell's "Road To Wigan Pier" and "Down & Out In Paris & London" evoked a clear sense of their surroundings and "Gang Leader For A Day" does just that.
Although not quite on a level with Orwell, Venkatesh's writing style is vivid, readable, and also very cinematic. This book is clearly aimed at an audience who may not usually read sociological tomes and the style is refreshingly free of a good deal of academic language. Reading this you do start to mentally cast the film version as the characters simply come to life off the page. Also, considering this is really meant to be academic research it has a wonderful driving plot. It would have been easy to have sat and read it all in one sitting. For not only are you fascinated by the information, you also want to know what is going to happen next.
Prof. Venkatesh has said that he doesn't believe anyone else could have been party to what he saw. Being of Indian descent is something of a novelty in the Chicago housing projects and so he had no cultural baggage in the eyes of his subjects. This gave him the chance to show the rest of the world what it is like to live in these conditions. It is not a pretty, or entirely hopeful story. This is the story of people getting by and making do by any means they have. That it turns out to be both compelling and moving at times is largely due to the wonderful writing talents of a very gifted individual.
This is a very interesting and powerful work will stand up with anything written in any genre you may read this year. This book is an amazing achievement, go seek it out.
Two sittings - Rated
I read this in two sittings. Need I say more! An excellent insight into life in the projects - and a compelling read too.
Genuinely astonishing - Rated
One of those books that manages to change the way you see the world around you. Not to be missed.
A Naive Graduate Student Learns about Life in the Projects - Rated
This book is as riveting an academic research report as you are ever likely to read.
In Freakonomics, many people were fascinated by a section that described how most crack cocaine dealers lived at home with their mothers. Why? They make less money than minimum wage. The source of that factoid was research conducted on site by Sudhir Venkatesh, author of Gang Leader for a Day, who describes in this book how he did that research and came to make decisions one day for part of the Black Kings gang in Chicago.
In the process of reading this book, you'll learn more than you ever expected to know about the ways that the poorest people support and protect themselves. You'll also find how drug-dealing gangs are both a help and a hindrance to the poor.
More powerfully, you'll be exposed to the great difficulties involved in observing the lives of the poor and the gangs that spring from them. The moral and ethical dilemmas this book presents are almost beyond belief.
Professor Venkatesh was a graduate student at the University of Chicago when his curiosity about the school's neighbors caused him to draft a questionnaire and head for the largest local housing project. Once there, he was detained by the gang whose territory he had invaded. Knowing nothing of gangs, he spent an uncomfortable night wondering what would happen to him. He piqued the curiosity of the gang's leader, J.T., and was granted ever widening access to the gang's activities and to the lives of those in their territory.
Take a close look at those who need help before deciding you know the answers.
