Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
by Sudhir Venkatesh
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sudhir VenkateshEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-01-10
ISBN: 1594201501
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Book Reviews of Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
Book Review: A MUST READ for EVERYONE
Summary: 5 Stars
I finished reading this book over one weekend--putting it down only for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Author Venkatesh took a very big risk in this venture into the "other" world; I think he was very lucky to connect with the gang leader JT who himself had some college education. This vital connection was a valuable "shield" for him, but for which he himself would have become a statistic very early in the venture. I hope this work will open the eyes of sociologists in formulating strategies for redeeming the unfortunate kids who fall into this trap of "easy money." May God bless you, Venkatesh. Keep up the good work!
Summary of Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
First introduced in Freakonomics, here is the full story of Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociology grad student who infiltrated one of Chicago's most notorious gangsThe 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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