Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets | Sudhir Venkatesh

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets | Sudhir Venkatesh | A great look into a side of America that most people never see.

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Gang Leader for a ...

	Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets Sudhir Venkatesh Penguin Press HC, The, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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 entr?e 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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A real eye-opener

I had many misperceptions about life in the projects until I read this book. You can read the other reviews to get a good idea of what the author says:
1) The drug gangs are a government within a government in the black subculture in the South Side of Chicago.
2) Virtually everyone has to be a hustler to make the few dollars they can to survive and make life a little more comfortable.
3) The project residents are constantly lied to by the city, housing authority and gang leaders. The leaders lie to themselves that they are doing good for the community.
4) Most of the project residents are just trying to get by in an impossible culture that they are born into and ill-prepared for.
5) The drug gang leaders are much like organized crime, with foot soldiers, middle managers, and king-pins at the top. They live by their own values and rules.
6) The gangs exploit the blacks by selling them poison (crack cocaine), then coercing and taxing them, all the while giving some of the money back making it look like they are helping the black community.
7) Left to their own devices, many of the blacks would start up their own small businesses and make money without government or gang interference. The residents band together to trade goods and services to survive.
8) Almost everyone is corrupt to some degree--the government, community leaders, the gang leaders and even the police. Like many foreign countries, you get no help until there is a payoff.
9) The blacks seem to see themselves as a distinctly separate culture and ethnic group from the white population, much like the Muslims today. This would seem to impede assimilation to one society.

Highly recommended for an inside view of gangs and project residents.

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A great look into a side of America that most people never see.

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.

A must read . . ..

I just finished this book. It is very interesting and kept my attention to the very end.
Although I ended up on this book by accident, I'm so glad I did - it was worth the read.

Fun Read during a Recession

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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