Gang Leader for a Day

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/