Why Don't American Cities Burn?

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Economic Conditions, Social Science, Sociology, Urban
Cover of the book Why Don't American Cities Burn? by Michael B. Katz, University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael B. Katz ISBN: 9780812205206
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. Publication: May 25, 2012
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Language: English
Author: Michael B. Katz
ISBN: 9780812205206
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication: May 25, 2012
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English

At 1:27 on the morning of August 4, 2005, Herbert Manes fatally stabbed Robert Monroe, known as Shorty, in a dispute over five dollars. It was a horrific yet mundane incident for the poor, heavily African American neighborhood of North Philadelphia—one of seven homicides to occur in the city that day and yet not make the major newspapers. For Michael B. Katz, an urban historian and a juror on the murder trial, the story of Manes and Shorty exemplified the marginalization, social isolation, and indifference that plague American cities.

Introduced by the gripping narrative of this murder and its circumstances, Why Don't American Cities Burn? charts the emergence of the urban forms that underlie such events. Katz traces the collision of urban transformation with the rightward-moving social politics of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America. He shows how the bifurcation of black social structures produced a new African American inequality and traces the shift from images of a pathological black "underclass" to praise of the entrepreneurial poor who take advantage of new technologies of poverty work to find the beginning of the path to the middle class. He explores the reasons American cities since the early 1970s have remained relatively free of collective violence while black men in bleak inner-city neighborhoods have turned their rage inward on one another rather than on the agents and symbols of a culture and political economy that exclude them.

The book ends with a meditation on how the political left and right have come to believe that urban transformation is inevitably one of failure and decline abetted by the response of government to deindustrialization, poverty, and race. How, Katz asks, can we construct a new narrative that acknowledges the dark side of urban history even as it demonstrates the capacity of government to address the problems of cities and their residents? How can we create a politics of modest hope?

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

At 1:27 on the morning of August 4, 2005, Herbert Manes fatally stabbed Robert Monroe, known as Shorty, in a dispute over five dollars. It was a horrific yet mundane incident for the poor, heavily African American neighborhood of North Philadelphia—one of seven homicides to occur in the city that day and yet not make the major newspapers. For Michael B. Katz, an urban historian and a juror on the murder trial, the story of Manes and Shorty exemplified the marginalization, social isolation, and indifference that plague American cities.

Introduced by the gripping narrative of this murder and its circumstances, Why Don't American Cities Burn? charts the emergence of the urban forms that underlie such events. Katz traces the collision of urban transformation with the rightward-moving social politics of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America. He shows how the bifurcation of black social structures produced a new African American inequality and traces the shift from images of a pathological black "underclass" to praise of the entrepreneurial poor who take advantage of new technologies of poverty work to find the beginning of the path to the middle class. He explores the reasons American cities since the early 1970s have remained relatively free of collective violence while black men in bleak inner-city neighborhoods have turned their rage inward on one another rather than on the agents and symbols of a culture and political economy that exclude them.

The book ends with a meditation on how the political left and right have come to believe that urban transformation is inevitably one of failure and decline abetted by the response of government to deindustrialization, poverty, and race. How, Katz asks, can we construct a new narrative that acknowledges the dark side of urban history even as it demonstrates the capacity of government to address the problems of cities and their residents? How can we create a politics of modest hope?

More books from University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

Cover of the book "The Bagnios of Algiers" and "The Great Sultana" by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Gay Voluntary Associations in New York by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Across the Open Field by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Heavenly Ambitions by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Shame and Honor by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Fallible Authors by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Witching Culture by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Capitalism by Gaslight by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Frank Furness by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book A Kingdom of Priests by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Florentine Political Writings from Petrarch to Machiavelli by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book Shakespearean Intersections by Michael B. Katz
Cover of the book This Is Our Music by Michael B. Katz
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy