Overview

"In a powerful, revealing portrait of city life, Anderson explores the dilemma of both blacks and whites, the underclass and the middle class, caught up in the new struggle not only for common ground--prime real estate in a racially changing neighborhood--but for shared moral community. Blacks and whites from a variety of backgrounds speak candidly about their lives, their differences, and their battle for viable communities. ""The sharpness of his observations and the simple clarity of his prose recommend his book far beyond an academic audience. Vivid, unflinching, finely observed, Streetwise is a powerful and intensely frightening picture of the inner city.""--Tamar Jacoby, New York Times Book Review ""The book is without peer in the urban sociology literature...A first-rate piece of social science, and a very good read.""--Glenn C. Loury, Washington Times"

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9780226018157

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Reviews

A lively slice of sociology from Anderson (Sociology/Univ. of Penn), who here explores two pseudonymous communities - the Village and Northton, of pseudonymous Eastern City - in order to get at some of the root causes of urban America's epidemic of drags, crime, and decay. Begun in 1975, based on firsthand observation of a big-city neighborhood, and incorporating much commentary by that neighborhood's citizens, Anderson's study looks at the shifting relationship between the predominately white, upscale Village and the contiguous community of Northton, primarily black and low-income. Geographically juxtaposed, the two communities, Anderson finds, impact constantly on each other, while the history of the general area is interwoven with the growth and expansion of the city itself. Anderson focuses mostly on Northton and the negative aspects of drugs, violence, sexual codes, poverty, and street wisdom - that state of mind that enables residents to know 'how to behave' in uncertain public places. While the Village remodels and real, state values increase, Northton continues to slide into deterioration and despair. And like so many other American communities, says Anderson, the Village then attempts to seal itself off from Northton, and to legislate against spillover crime originating in the rundown section of the city. Moreover, to further complicate and intensify the problems of the ghetto community, as family, social mores, and traditional institutions break down, those who can, flee. There are then no older heads around to show the younger generations a better way. Perceptive and street-authentic, but all-too-familiar, and Anderson's failure to identify his communities renders his data troublingly unverifiable and mutes its sting. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Elijah Anderson is the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. His past books include A Place on the Corner, Streetwise, published by the University of Chicago Press, as well as Code of the Street and The Cosmopolitan Canopy.

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