Gang Leader for a Day
A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
Ratings18
Average rating4.2
First introduced in Freakonomics, here is the full story of Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociology grad student who infiltrated one of Chicago's most notorious gangs The story of the young sociologist who studied a Chicago crack-dealing gang from the inside captured the world's attention when it was first described in Freakonomics. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh managed to gain entrance into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment. When Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago's most notorious housing projects, he was looking for people to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty. A first-year grad student hoping to impress his professors with his boldness, he never imagined that as a result of the assignment he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there. Over the next seven years, Venkatesh got to know the neighborhood dealers, crackheads, squatters, prostitutes, pimps, activists, cops, organizers, and officials. From his privileged position of unprecedented access, he observed JT and the rest of the gang as they operated their crack-selling business, conducted PR within their community, and rose up or fell within the ranks of the gang's complex organizational structure. In Hollywood-speak, Gang Leader for a Day is The Wire meets Harvard University. It's a brazen, page turning, and fundamentally honest view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in what is tantamount to an urban war zone. It is also the story of a complicated friendship between Sudhir and JT-two young and ambitious men a universe apart.
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the most interesting research has already been published elsewhere. also gets kind of tedious and self-apologetic. still, ventakesh opens the door for undeniably important kinds of sociology.
I went into this book skeptical. I really thought it was going to be one of those corny “analyses” of “urban culture”, that ended up falling into a definite “side” and parroting a specific angle of the political spectrum. But no, this book is nuanced, comprehensive, and profound. It gives shocking insight into impoverished and marginalized communities, giving them dignity, but not papering over or excusing anything. Every person should read this book to get a better idea of how such communities live and persist. All sides of the political spectrum will find food for thought and challenges to their notions. If you work in or near a city, or have strong opinions about “those people” (whoever they might be for you), then this is a book for you to read and be better informed, even though there exists few answers or proposals in these pages, it is a first step to see the problems and gifts of these communities in stark relief and to wrestle with their history and implications.
I also went to University of Chicago (where the author was during the main of this book), so I am well aware of the neighborhoods and issues he is talking about. I have never really had any dealings with gangs, but I worked at a homeless shelter (often with lots of gang or former gang members), a drug rehab program and with an after school program in a different public housing complex. This is a really good book about the myriad of issues that face the poor in the US. Poverty, especially concentrated urban poverty, is not a simple issue. It can't be solved by better government or better public policy by itself. It can't be just a pull yourself up by your bootstraps. There are not a lot of answers in this book but there are a lot of description of the issues. It is the way that real stories should be told. This should be required reading for any one that wants to look deeper in to the issues of poverty in the US.
A longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/gang-leader-for-a-day-a-rouge-sociologist-takes-to-the-streets-by-sudhir-alladi-venkatesh/
