Scan barcode
jwsg's review against another edition
2.0
This is the third book I've read over the past few months on the American ghetto and perhaps my rating - probably 2.5 stars - partially reflects some fatigue with the material. American Project isn't a terrible book but it's not amazing either. In American Project, Venkatesh chronicles the lives of the tenants of Chicago's infamous Robert Taylor Homes in the 1990s and their struggle with gang activity in the housing project. Like Wacquant, Venkatesh does give a sense of the broader systemic issues that led to the failure of this social engineering experiment - the entrenched racism and patronage that led to blacks being isolated in the ghetto (Robert Taylor Homes was situated in the heart of the ghetto); the indifference and helplessness of government agencies such as the Chicago Housing Authority and the police; and the withdrawal of established community organisations from the neighbourhood, on the grounds that they did not want to get involved in the "politics" between tenants and the Black Knights gang over the latter's drug dealing activities. Unlike Wacquant, whose Urban Outcasts comes across very much as being written by the aloof academic from his lofty perch, observing his research subjects scurrying around below, Venkatesh does give a sense of getting down to the ground. The voice of Robert Taylor residents does come through prominently in the narrative and gives the reader a better sense of some of the challenges they faced living in the project.
One of the more interesting sections of the book for me was when Venkatesh talked about some of the backgrounds of the middle-tier gang leaders - one was a college graduate and had worked in a white collar job; another had received a scholarship to go to college. These profiles do not conform to the stereotype of gang members; these boys/men chose the gang route because it was a route that offered them the prospect of mobility, power, "respect" and fun, as opposed to the security (and drudgery) of a nine to five job taking orders from some white person. In that respect, the motivations of these men seemed similar to that of the boys living in the favela in Donna Goldstein's Laughter Out of Place, who choose to join a gang instead of getting a respectable job. There's a high chance of dying, but there's also a chance of raising themselves out of abject poverty, which menial labour does not offer.
My main gripe is that the book isn't as tightly written as it could have been. Clocking in at 287 pages, the book isn't a very long one. But some parts of it felt tedious as I felt Venkatesh was belabouring certain points, e.g. the haplessness and isolation of Robert Taylor as traditional forms of support e.g. community organisations refused to engage with the community; or the dilemma the Local Advisory Council faced as to whether to work with the Black Knights, or treat them as the enemy to be flushed out somehow. I understand the need to emphasise certain key points but there's a fine line between emphasizing and belabouring a point.
One of the more interesting sections of the book for me was when Venkatesh talked about some of the backgrounds of the middle-tier gang leaders - one was a college graduate and had worked in a white collar job; another had received a scholarship to go to college. These profiles do not conform to the stereotype of gang members; these boys/men chose the gang route because it was a route that offered them the prospect of mobility, power, "respect" and fun, as opposed to the security (and drudgery) of a nine to five job taking orders from some white person. In that respect, the motivations of these men seemed similar to that of the boys living in the favela in Donna Goldstein's Laughter Out of Place, who choose to join a gang instead of getting a respectable job. There's a high chance of dying, but there's also a chance of raising themselves out of abject poverty, which menial labour does not offer.
My main gripe is that the book isn't as tightly written as it could have been. Clocking in at 287 pages, the book isn't a very long one. But some parts of it felt tedious as I felt Venkatesh was belabouring certain points, e.g. the haplessness and isolation of Robert Taylor as traditional forms of support e.g. community organisations refused to engage with the community; or the dilemma the Local Advisory Council faced as to whether to work with the Black Knights, or treat them as the enemy to be flushed out somehow. I understand the need to emphasise certain key points but there's a fine line between emphasizing and belabouring a point.
alli_always_reads's review
3.0
The content of this book was interesting and well researched, however the format and some of the repetitiveness made for a slow paced read.
More...