In the late-1980s, at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in urban America, life in housing projects was very isolated from life in the rural and suburban areas of the country—and even from other parts of the cities. One had the feeling that politicians and media analysts who discussed the situation really had no idea what was going on in the projects, and the people who lived there could not easily find a voice on the national stage.
But surely, one imagines, there must have been some person at some time, perhaps an adventurous researcher or journalist, who managed to cross the line and could explain life from both parties' perspectives. It turns out that such rare people did in fact exist, and one of them was University of Chicago graduate student in sociology Sudhir Venkatesh, now a professor at Columbia University.
Read our review of his book "Gang Leader for a Day," which is a description of Venkatesh's experiences, by clicking here.
