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| Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets | 
| Author: Sudhir Venkatesh
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $8.95
You Save: $17.00 (66%)
New (44) Collectible (1) from $14.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 9319
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1594201501
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.10660977311
EAN: 9781594201509
ASIN: 1594201501
Publication Date: January 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: HARDCOVER - NEVER READ, PUBILISHER'S OVERSTOCK - the dust jacket has just a hint of edgewear - the cover has a bumped corner, the top and bottom edge of the spine are lightly bumped -the text is very clean
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| Customer Reviews:
 A must read . . .. August 2, 2008
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.
A real eye-opener August 1, 2008
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.
 Powerfully Emotionless July 30, 2008
I guess this is what happens when someone writes a book that should ooze with anger and emotion, but comes out sterile and removed, If this is not an example of voyeurism at its worst?... . Stranger than fiction, because fiction is meant to entertain and this material is so pathetic, that , the author missing this angle, shows not a "hustler mentality", but of an elitist. The author was concerned about his own legal problems,as far as the witnessing and documenting of felony crimes, while idealistically he could have been a force for good, while not stepping on too many toes. To me this is where his end of the bargain should have been, considering his intrusion into this world of a mental prison without physical walls. Oh yeah, guess what Angelina, Madonna, and the rest of you, you should WAKE THE F UP, you don't have to go abroad to find anarchy. Don't read, if your into denial.
 Not as gripping as it ought to be... July 21, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found the book to be very good, however I thought it could have been better.
While it contained many great stories about events Sudhir experienced, I would have preferred it if it was a biography on the gang leader, or the gang.
A bit less of the sociology side of things would have made it more enthralling. The title over-hypes things though, as - trying not to give things away here - his day as a gang leader is a very small part of the story.
All things considered though, not bad.
fastinating reading July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I heard about this book as a result of the author doing an interview on NPR. Since I live in a somewhat mixed neighborhood in-town in a mid-size city, I had some personal interest as to insights into gangs and lower-income life.
I found the book to be fastinating reading, and an easy read. The reader should understand that the gang the author tagged along with and the housing projects that he frequented were of a large scale in a large city, and may not be indicative of lower level gangs and street neighborhoods with less structure. Still, the leadership, management, and structure involved in running a large gang operation was something I had not anticipated. Likewise, the author describes, and was conflicted by, as was I, an unexpected and enlightening interplay of the various "good deeds" that the gang performed versus their illicit activities and power tactics. The idea that the gang filled a "services" void (protection, food and clothing contributions, youth activities, dispute mediation) for the residents of the community is something I heard of before but did not really think about.
The book left me thinking about what it really would take to bring this sector of our society out of poverty and into the mainstream. The author does not address this, or any solutions at all, and this is perhaps the books' only shortcoming.
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