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Whistle Stopper - Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $14.51
Your Save: $ 11.44 ( 44% )
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Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.10660977311
EAN: 9781594201509
ISBN: 1594201501
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-01-10
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Embedded in the Projects
Comment: "Rogue sociologist" and author Sudhir Venkatesh is aptly described in GLFAD's foreword as "born with two abnormalities: an overdeveloped curiosity and an underdeveloped sense of fear." Both are evident in this impressive narrative of his extensive, nearly decade long doctorate research in sociology, conducted while embedded in the Chicago projects. Venkatesh unwittingly set the bar high: his home away from home, which he more or less stumbled upon while naively (yet purposely) straying far away from his University of Chicago on an ethnographer's quest, was Robert Taylor Homes, one of the nation's largest and most violent ghettoes. Not to mention the late 80s and early 90s marked a period especially tarnished by an epidemic of ruthless and widespread gang activity, not the least of which was due to the pervasive sale and abuse of the too-affordable crack cocaine. This story is as much about the projects and their interplay with the drug trade as it is about Chicago's street gangs.
Venkatesh penetrated the inner circles and high ranks of the vicious, drug-dealing street gang the Black Kings by more or less going to places that he shouldn't have, and fraternizing with people he should have run from. Venkatesh seemed to avoid the gang's wrath through a combination of childlike naiveté and flattery; his access to main character and Black Kings leader J.T., for instance, was engendered by the latter's mistaking Venkatesh for his biographer. The gang also attempted to use "The Professor" to spread its propaganda, emphasizing how its money and security made the projects safer, and making sure Venkatesh took ample notes at events like community outreach programs, voter registration drives, and life-skills workshops. Fortunately for the GLFAD's readers, Venkatesh's curiosity extended to the gang's seedier side, and his descriptions of digging beneath the surface to witness beatings, shootings, and extortion make the story a page turner.
That's not to say that Venkatesh didn't possess common sense and his wits about him, at least as he got older and wiser. He had a knack for knowing when to stop asking questions, and when not to get involved in the brutal mayhem around him (being an admitted coward works wonders that way, although Venkatesh second guessed a lot of his decisions not to at least try to involve the police). He made a great many alliances with gang leaders, community activists, squatters, cops, prostitutes, and garden variety hustlers, while never pitting them against one another- a balancing act that got more delicate the longer he stayed, especially as events like FBI raids and the planned demolition of the projects increased paranoia among Robert Taylor's residents.
Venkatesh's relationship with J.T. is the best chronicled and most powerful of GLFAD. The gang leader is no clichéd thug with a heart of gold, and yet his positive contributions to his community are more evident than the often subtle influence of drugs. He was college educated, loved his extended family, was more honest than most about his role in the community, and worked hard at his illicit "profession." [GLFAD gets its title from J.T.'s handing over his responsibilities to Venkatesh for a day, after the latter questions how difficult his "work" really is.] J.T. craved legitimacy and waxed about how a drug economy was "useful for the community," by redistributing undesirable drug addicts' money into the hands of ordinary citizens through the gangs' philanthropic efforts. His relationship with Venkatesh was both intimate and instructional, and daresay, sweet at times (particularly at the story's end).
Sadly, the uplifting messages are few, and a big theme of the book is how conventional sociology tools are ill-fitting to Robert Taylor Homes' hardships, and how Venkatesh's colleagues were (understandably) out of touch with the inner-city. The outlook on the projects' side wasn't any rosier: take home messages from the projects included (i) everyone is a hustler when you're facing extreme impoverished circumstances, with few exceptions; and (ii) a thirst for power trumps- although can coexist with- helping your fellow man. The sense of community was never as powerful in Robert Taylor as when in lockstep with lining the pockets of those extending a helping hand. No birthday party was assembled without drug money funding, soda kickbacks from local markets, and hired hot dog grilling duty; well-connected (and self-appointed) housing authorities assisted tenants for "consulting fees"; neighborhood meetings couldn't assemble without specious security detail and room fees. Ventakesh himself realized his complicity when it was pointed out to him that his research was a hustle, too: he exercised kindness and showed compassion to those in the ghetto, but his research and data were the ends justifying much of his means.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very eye-opening
Comment: I really enjoyed this book a lot. It's not a ton of climactic, over the top stuff, but it kept me interested throughout. I'm not a reader (more of a tv person unfortunately for my weakening brain) but I read this book in a couple of days, and I can't even remember the last time it took me less than 2 weeks to finish a book. It almost made me want to go to a ghetto (there are plenty near where I live) and hang out to see what the people are like, but I don't think it would be as easy for a woman to do as it was for a man (few things are, I guess). Anyway, I enjoyed this book a lot because it really gives you some insight into why rich people get richer and poor people get poorer. Sad but so obviously true.
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Summary: Fascinating and Educational--Great Insight!
Comment: This is a fascinating book about a sociology student doing research in a low-income project in Chicago to find out how it feels to be black and poor and how they survive. He started with a questionnaire, but after getting laughed at and challenged to hang out with the people and see how things are, he abandons his questionnaires and hangs out with a gang for several years. This is non-fiction, based on actual experiences of the author who also talked to others in the community to find out their view of the gang and how they live. The funniest part was when J.T., the gang leader let the author be the gang leader for a day so he would find it wasn't at all as easy as he thought and his respect and admiration for J.T. increased. It was surprising to see that the gang was actually a well-run drug business. It's primary purpose was selling cocaine and keeping "peace" in the neighborhood, not fighting with other gangs or stirring up trouble. Whenever there was a fight or someone would get hurt, no one ever called the cops. They'd call on the gang members for help instead. No ambulance would go to the projects.
It gives insight into the role gangs play in the neighborhood, how community leaders cooperate with the gangs, how hopeless some peoples' lives can be and the ineffectiveness of the police and government agencies. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see how life in the low-income projects is, at least in some places. Very educational and a good read!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gang Leader For A Day
Comment: Under the pretense that he was writing the gang leaders biography, the author was able to get firsthand research about the gang itself. It was very fascinating to see how organized gangs can be, and how "important" they can be to their communities. But I felt disgust at the authors admiration and respect for the gang and its leader. As I read the book I quickly came to realize how naive the author is...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Comment: If you are interested in Gangs, Chicago, or Sociology this is a must have book! Great Book!
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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