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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 entrŽe 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.
Raw, Realistic, Gripping
| Customer Rating:  | This is a stark but gripping look at gangs, drugs, and life in public housing. In 1989, sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh walked from the University of Chicago to nearby housing projects to survey residents, only to be detained as a likely spy for rivals by the Black Kings street gang. Yet Vankatesh was soon befriended by gang leader J.T., and for the next few years he alternated between the University and the Robert Taylor Homes - a large and nightmarish public housing complex where the Black Kings competed with other gangs for turf and drug sales. Vankatesh reveals the corporate-like structure of drug-dealing gangs, and the challenges of such activities. The author also introduces us to residents like C-Note, Clarisse, and Ms. Bailey, showing their sense of community, distrust of police, and what they often must do to survive - hustling, taking in borders, hiding income, trading sex, storing drugs or weapons for gangs, and making payoffs in a highly-corrupt system. This is a raw and depressing book, yet not without hope and humor. It's also highly revealing because unike most academics, Venkatesh spent time with his subjects.
Chicago dismantled it's disastrous Robert Taylor Homes from 1996-2006, sending residents to privately-owned apartments (paid for via Section 8) in various and usually black communities in the City and poorer suburbs. As a result, areas near where the projects had stood gained new construction and business, while the communities where the residents went (including where I teach) often saw increased problems. |
More interesting than Freakonomics...
| Customer Rating:  | I read and enjoyed Freakonomics, and I liked the variety presented in that book. This book is essentially one aspect of that book expanded into a full book by a rather large measure. The author presents a fascinating view of life in the Chicago projects through a gang he trails for several years.
Right off the bat, the book draws you in as the author describes how he innocently decided to wander into the projects with his clipboard in hand so that he could start surveying poverty-stricken people. He naively wanders into a building lobby in the projects where some Black Kings gang members are hanging out. They detain him overnight as they fear he is a Mexican from a rival gang. He has the good fortune to meet a leader in the gang who he then has the opportunity to shadow for several years.
The author interacts with gang leaders, gang members, tenants in the projects, community leaders, and eventually receives the economic information that he contributes to Freakonomics, but that's a sliver of the information he gathers as he frequents the projects. It's a rather riveting account of life there, and through his book, we learn that while the gangs do make their living dealing illegal drugs, their business sense and community concerns are detailed enough to dispel my myths about them, and that makes it a very worthy read.
Lastly, I "read" the audio book and the reader did a quite fantastic job at conveying various voices and keeping the story interesting. The one fault of the audio version is that the author read the final chapter and it disrupted the rhythm that the original reader had established.
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a disappointing delivery
| Customer Rating: | I am surprised to see so many 5-star reviews. Everyone of course has his reason to love this book. To me, however, the disappointing factor is that the author had the most interesting materials that most writers would die for, but he is such a terrible storyteller. The book is dull to read. Dull to death. The little episodes here and there might wake you up, but there are only few.
I admire his courage and determination, but it is unfair for a person like this guy to write about such precious experience. He should've give all the materials to a better writer who could have delivered much better. |
A great look into a side of America that most people never see.
| Customer Rating: | | This is a narrative of Sudhir Venkatesh as he explores the community and economy of a crack gang. This is a very interesting book and I think it really helped me understand the world better. I would suggest this to anyone that will work with the public, any teachers, police officers, military officers, and all other public servants. |
Fun Read during a Recession
| Customer Rating: | Sudhir Venkatesh takes an unbelievable leap into the inner city projects of South Chicago. Within this book he does a remarkable job at illustrating the difficulties and endless traps faced by the inner city residents of Robert Taylor projects. What he also illustrates is how creative the community is, and how they find ways to turn lemons into Mike's Hard Lemonade. Furthermore, the book did a great job at explaining two great characters (Ms. Bailey and J.T.) and how each of their styles, though questionable in practice, are highly effective--to them, the end is less important than the means--and rightfully so.
Great book! I suggest reading it as it also teaches you that during a time when tightening your belt is common place, he or she with the greatest political power and creativity will always prevail. |
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