Overview

Full Product Details

9780374161804

Table of Contents

Reviews

Mitchell Duneier s book on the ghetto explores both the place and the thinking it has inspired. He tells the story of a reality that will not go away. He is never superficial, always clear, and sometimes deeply moving. To understand the American city, you need to read this book. Richard Sennett, University Professor of Sociology and History at New York University and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science In Poland in 1949, W. E. B. Du Bois recognized the 'Negro problem' in the Warsaw ghetto, drawing a parallel Mitchell Duneier explores with exquisite discernment. Focused on particular thinkers in particular times, Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea reveals how social science actually operates. The result: a brilliant combination of breadth and sharpness, of thought-provoking questions and clear-sighted answers, of Jews and blacks in cities across the Western world. Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People and Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University Mitchell Duneier s book should be read by anyone who wants to understand the history of the ghetto and how our thinking about race has developed. It will be an eye-opener even for people well versed in that subject and it will be especially important for a new generation who may not be acquainted with the important thinkers who shaped thought about the Jewish and later the black ghetto. For many, it will be the equivalent of Robert Heilbroner s The Worldly Philosophers, which introduced readers to the history of economic thought it displays a similar gift for narrative, appraisal, and analysis. In light of recent events in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere, and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this book could not be more timely. Paul Starr, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Social Transformation of American Medicine Duneier offers a wholly new perspective on the ghetto that traverses five centuries in three distinct phases. He opens a window onto both the institution itself and how it has been perceived, shedding light on the nature of the ghetto, its origins, and its varied modes of destructiveness as well as on the internal creativity that has sometimes spared its residents, though not in the Nazi ghetto, the worst. Kenneth Stow, author of Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the Sixteenth Century A major work of original historical research and contextualization that is destined to become a classic. Benjamin C.I. Ravid, Weisman Professor Emeritus of Jewish History, Brandeis University

Mitchell Duneier's book needs to be read by anyone who wants to understand not only the history of the ghetto, but more generally how our thinking about race has developed. Indeed, it will be an eye-opener even for people well versed in that subject. As a work of both intellectual history and sociology, it will be especially important for a new generation who may not be acquainted with the line of important thinkers who played a role in shaping thought about the Jewish and later the black ghetto. In light of recent events in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere, and the emergence of Black Lives Matter, this book could not be more timely. Paul Starr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Social Transformation of American Medicine

One of America's pre-eminent ethnographers, renowned for his exquisite close-focus portraits of the deprived in our cities, now zooms out to wide-angle intellectual and cultural history. Tracing the concept of 'the ghetto' from its tangled roots in medieval Italy to its genocidal implementation by the Nazis in Warsaw to its contemporary embodiment in poverty-stricken, subjugated American central cities, Duneier offers subtle, unexpected insights into the contours and consequences of race-based residential segregation. Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, and author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids In Poland in 1949, W. E. B. Du Bois recognized the 'Negro problem' in the Warsaw ghetto, drawing a parallel Mitchell Duneier explores with exquisite discernment. Focused on particular thinkers in particular times, Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea reveals how social science actually operates. The result: a brilliant combination of breadth and sharpness, of thought-provoking questions and clear-sighted answers, of Jews and blacks in cities across the Western world. Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People and Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University Mitchell Duneier s book on the ghetto explores both the place and the thinking it has inspired. He tells the story of a reality that will not go away. He is never superficial, always clear, and sometimes deeply moving. To understand the American city, you need to read this book. Richard Sennett, University Professor of Sociology and History at New York University and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science Mitchell Duneier s book should be read by anyone who wants to understand the history of the ghetto and how our thinking about race has developed. It will be an eye-opener even for people well versed in that subject and it will be especially important for a new generation who may not be acquainted with the important thinkers who shaped thought about the Jewish and later the black ghetto. For many, it will be the equivalent of Robert Heilbroner s The Worldly Philosophers, which introduced readers to the history of economic thought it displays a similar gift for narrative, appraisal, and analysis. In light of recent events in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere, and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this book could not be more timely. Paul Starr, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Social Transformation of American Medicine Duneier offers a wholly new perspective on the ghetto that traverses five centuries in three distinct phases. He opens a window onto both the institution itself and how it has been perceived, shedding light on the nature of the ghetto, its origins, and its varied modes of destructiveness as well as on the internal creativity that has sometimes spared its residents, though not in the Nazi ghetto, the worst. Kenneth Stow, author of Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the Sixteenth Century A major work of original historical research and contextualization that is destined to become a classic. Benjamin C.I. Ravid, Weisman Professor Emeritus of Jewish History, Brandeis University

Author Information

Mitchell Duneier is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and the author of the award-winning urban ethnographies Slim's Table and Sidewalk.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available