Home Back

Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.10660977311
EAN: 9780061571138
Edition: Unabridged
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 006157113X
Label: HarperAudio
Manufacturer: HarperAudio
Number Of Items: 9
Publication Date: February 01, 2008
Publisher: HarperAudio
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Studio: HarperAudio

---

Related Items:

• Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor
• The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
• Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto
• see more

---

Editorial Review:

Product Description:


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 entrée 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, he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of the next decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there.



Over the next seven years, Venkatesh 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.



Gang Leader for a Day is an inside view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in an urban war zone. It is also the story of a complicated friendship between two young and ambitious men, a universe apart.






Rating: - Good for you *and* fun to read
This is a fascinating book. Venkatesh develops close relationships with the gang's leader and many others in that community, and he gives us a rare first-hand look at inner-city urban life. Venkatesh explores the economic, class, and racial tensions in that world but does so in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner free of any academic jargon or awkward theorizing.

It's interesting to hear his description of the quantitative vs. qualitative split among sociologists. He concludes ... Read More

---

Rating: - Can't put it down
This is a compelling story on many fronts. It is a remarkable story which provides tangible insights into a life most people never really touch. The characters are gripping if a little sad. In the end, this is a book with few if any heroes, plenty of parasites, and a warning to anyone who thinks he has the answer to crime and poverty in inner cities.

---

Rating: - Raw, Realistic, Gripping
This is a stark but gripping look at gangs, drugs, and life in public housing. In 1989, grad student Sudhir Venkatesh walked from the University of Chicago to nearby housing projects to survey residents, and was detained as a possible spy for rival gangs by the Black Kings. 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, nightmarish public housing complex where the Black Kings competed with ... Read More

---

Rating: - More interesting than Freakonomics...
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 ... Read More

---

Rating: - a disappointing delivery
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 ... Read More

---

Arts & Photography • Biographies & Memoirs • Business & Investing • Children's Books • Comics & Graphic Novels • Computers & Internet • Cooking, Food & Wine • Entertainment • Gay & Lesbian • Health, Mind & Body • History • Home & Garden • Law • Literature & Fiction • Medicine • Mystery & Thrillers • Nonfiction • Outdoors & Nature • Parenting & Families • Professional & Technical • Reference • Religion & Spirituality • Romance • Science • Science Fiction & Fantasy • Sports • Teens • Travel •