Urban communities / city life Books

Book SynopsisAn unexpected love story from Marc Levy, international bestselling author of The Last of the Stanfields, and the most widely read French author in the world. It’s been five years since fate upended resilient Chloe Bronstein’s world. While she may be living with her father, and her acting career has taken a decidedly unexpected turn, she’s alive. And she’s intrigued by Sanji, the charming new elevator operator in her quaint Manhattan apartment building. There’s just something about the Mumbai-born, Oxford-educated, thoroughly modern elevator man that doesn’t quite add up. Sanji is dazzled by Chloe. They have so much in common: Both defiant. Both independent. Both determined to live by their own rules. But there’s one thing about Sanji that Chloe doesn’t know. Yet. However hesitant Chloe and Sanji’s burgeoning romance is—complicated by family, friends, neighbors, and the past—it also awakens them to life’s limitless possibilities.

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Book SynopsisThe USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids returns with a tale of two generations of women reconciling family secrets and past regrets. Life’s beautiful for seventysomething influencer Gloria Rose, in her Upper West Side loft with rooftop garden and scores of Instagram followers—until she gets word that her old flame has been arrested for art theft and forgery, and, knowing her own involvement in his misdeeds decades earlier, decides to flee. But that plan is complicated when the nieces she raised are thrown into crises of their own. Willow, overshadowed by her notorious singer-songwriter mother, has come home to lick her wounds on the heels of a failed album and yet another disastrous relationship. Sam, prickly and fiercely independent, is on the verge of losing not only her beloved video game company but the man she loves, thanks to her inability to keep her always-simmering anger in check. With the FBI closing in, Willow’s career in shambles, and Sam’s tribulations reaching a peak, each of the three woman will have to reckon with and reconcile their interwoven traumas, past loves, and the looming consequences that could either destroy their futures or bring them closer than ever.Trade Review“Barbara O’Neal weaves an irresistible tale of creativity, forgery, family, and the FBI in Write My Name Across the Sky. Willow and Sam are fascinating, and their aunt Gloria is my dream of an incorrigible, glamorous older woman.” —Nancy Thayer, bestselling author of Family Reunion “Write My Name Across the Sky is an exquisitely crafted novel of three remarkable women from two generations grappling with decisions of the past and the consequences of where those young, impetuous choices have led. A heartfelt story of passion, devotion, and family told as only Barbara O’Neal can.” —Suzanne Redfearn, #1 Amazon bestselling author of In an Instant “With its themes of creativity and art, Write My Name Across the Sky is itself like a masterfully executed painting. Using refined brushstrokes, O’Neal builds her vivid, complex characters: three independent women in one family who can’t quite come to terms with their fierce feelings of love for one another. O’Neal deftly switches between three points of view, adding layers of family history into this intimate and satisfying study of how women make tough choices between love and creativity and family and freedom.” —Glendy Vanderah, Washington Post bestselling author of Where the Forest Meets the Stars

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Book SynopsisThis is a Choice's 'Outstanding Academic Title'. The college town is a unique type of urban place, shaped by the sometimes conflicting forces of youth, intellect, and idealism. The hundreds of college towns in the United States are, in essence, an academic archipelago. Similar to one another, they differ in fundamental ways from other cities and the regions in which they are located. In this highly readable book - the first work published on the subject - Blake Gumprecht identifies the distinguishing features of college towns, explains why they have developed as they have in the United States, and examines in depth various characteristics that make them unusual. In eight thematic chapters, he explores some of the most interesting aspects of college towns - their distinctive residential and commercial districts, their unconventional political cultures, their status as bohemian islands, their emergence as high-tech centers, and more. Each of these chapters focuses on a single college town as an example, while providing additional evidence from other towns. Lively, richly detailed, and profusely illustrated with original maps and photographs, as well as historical images, this is an important book that firmly establishes the college town as an integral component of the American experience.

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Book SynopsisIn 1990, Hartford, Connecticut, ranked as the eight poorest city in the country by the census; the real estate market was severely depressed; downtown insurance companies were laying off and the retail department stores were closing; public services were strained; and demolition sites abandoned for lack of funds pockmarked the streets. Hartford's problems are typical of those experienced in numerous U.S. cities affected by a lingering recession. The harsh economic times felt throughout the city's workplaces and neighborhoods precipitated the formation of grassroots alliances between labor and community organizations. Coming together to create new techniques, their work has national implications for the development of alternative strategies for stimulating economic recovery. Louise B. Simmons, a former Hartford City Councilperson, offers an insider's view of these coalitions, focusing on three activist unions the New England Health Care Employees Union, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, and the United Auto Workers and three community groups Hartford Areas Rally Together, Organized North Easterners-Clay Hill and North End, and Asylum Hill Organizing Project. Her in-depth analysis illustrates these groups' successes and difficulties in working together toward a new vision of urban politics. Louise B. Simmons is Director of the University of Connecticut Urban Semester Program.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Alliances, Coalitions, and Electoral Activities 3. Labor Organizing 4. Neighborhood Organizing 5. Concluding Thoughts Epilogue References Index

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Book SynopsisHomelessness is usually discusses in terms of its origins or in terms of its amelioration. Media accounts focus on poverty, drug use, lack of shelter, the social safety net, or attempts by the homeless, social service agencies, and government to end homelessness by policy and direct action. Yet we never seem to get a clear picture of who the homeless are. We are exposed to them as a social problem, but we learn little about their daily existence. In Something Left to Lose, Gwendolyn A. Dordick gives us a dramatic portrait of the social and personal lives of the homeless. Through her extensive \u0022hanging out\u0022 with homeless people, Dordick came to a profound understanding of the web of relationships that provides complex social structure in situations where, to the casual eye, there appears to be only chaos and paralysis. The author shows us that improvising shelter means working hard to co-exist with others. Lacking conventional private dwellings, the homeless find or create shelter in unconventional places -- on street corners adjoining bus stations, on empty lots of land, or in shelters, public or private -- and negotiate the rules of these places with authorities, passersby, and fellow homeless. The different environments lead to quite different social relations. The Armory, for example, is a frightening place, thanks to the authoritarian attitudes of the employees and cliques of homeless people in charge. In the Shanty, on the other hand, the difficult issues are those of a self-governing community concerned about safety -- controlling the drug use of some residents, deciding who is allowed to tap into the electricity, and worrying about intruders. In all settings, daily life for people without homes, like daily life for people with homes, if full of the concerns of personal relationships. How will we share our goods and emotions, speak respectfully to each other, love and joke and work out our disputes, and act in a trustworthy fashion? This book is also a miniature research odyssey, complete with moments of fear, frustration, blunders, distrust, and trust. In order to gather these interviews, Dordick had to not only win the the confidence of the homeless people she visited (the women at the Station thought she was interested in their boyfriends) but also negotiate with unsympathetic police and shelters employees or defy them.Trade Review"Something Left to Lose contributes to the sociological understanding of homelessness by examining improvisation among the denizens of four distinct niches in Manhattan's homeless topography... Dordick has produced a sympathetic but unromantic account of social improvisation among the homeless." -Social ForcesTable of ContentsPreface Part I: On the Streets 1. "Your Word Is Your Bond": The Station 2. "Kindness for Weakness": The Shanty Part II: In the Shelters 3. More than Refuge: The Armory 4. "Stinkin' Thinkin'": The Private Shelter Part III: From a Distance 5. Conclusion Notes Index

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Book SynopsisLove, Sorrow, and Rage gives powerful voice to women like Nora Gaines and Dixie Register, who tell use what it's like to live on the streets of New York, how it feels to lose your mind, about the taste of crack cocaine and the sweetness of friendship. In this novel-like narrative of homelessness and hope, poor women share a table, their meals, and their intimacies with author Alisse Waterston. On the pages of this impassioned ethnography, Waterston puts mythic, demonized bag ladies to rest, and in so doing, brings ordinary women to life. From drug addiction and the spread of AIDS to the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S., the topics in this book get front-page coverage in daily newspapers across the country. Waterston seeks to understand, to explain, and to solve the human crisis that surrounds us. Towards this end, she challenges us to look at the ways in which our society and the workings of our political, economic, and popular culture contribute to the suffering experienced by our most vulnerable citizens. An important corrective to popular depictions of the urban poor, Love, Sorrow, and Rage provides a penetrating analysis of the causes and consequences of poverty. It offers a deeper understanding of what leads to and perpetuates poverty and of the human complex of love, sorrow, and rage felt by those who experience it. Love, Sorrow, and Rage will engage readers interested in urban studies, women's studies, social issues and policies, anthropology, sociology, political economy, and New York City life.Trade Review"A brilliant ethnography of women on the edge... Waterston is one of our best urban ethnographers, mixing intelligent fieldwork and sheer novelistic splendor in a masterful work. A must-read. This book should be standard for every ethnographic methods and theory course on urban life, women, poverty, and race." -Terry Williams, New School for Social Research "Love, Sorrow, and Rage tells us something powerful and intimate about a group of poor women living in the wealthiest city on the face of the earth. In the process, Alisse Waterston demolishes a series of myths about the 'urban underclass' that have perverted both social theories and social policies. Indeed, Waterston has succeeded where an entire generation of anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists has failed: she renders in vivid detail, and with a towering passion of her own, the ways in which ostensibly impersonal forces-racism, gender inequality, ill-conceived social policies-come to have their effect in poor women's lives. Accountable to a large literature but unshackled from the constraints of jargon, Love, Sorrow, and Rage takes flight as bitter and persuasive poetry. It should be required reading for physicians, social workers, policy-makers-indeed, for all those fortunate enough to meet women whose lives have been damaged by the structural forces that come alive in this remarkable and harrowing book." -Paul Farmer, Harvard Medical School "A moving and beautiful book. In so much of what is written about 'the homeless' and 'the mentally ill,' the people themselves are missing. Alisse Waterston brings out their humanity. Nothing can replace an experience, but reading a book like this is the next best thing." -Ezra Susser, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsCONTENTS Acknowledgments Prologue: An Urban Ethnography for Our Times 1 Home, Some Place 2 Some Kind of Nobody 3 Drinkin' and Druggin' 4 Sorrow and Melancholia 5 Abuses of the Spirit 6 Love and Other Intimacies 7 Odd Women Out 8 Pistachio Nuts 9 A Madness in Me 10 Rage 11 Difference and Other Infections of the Day 12 The Road to Clarity Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisAtlanta, the epitome of the New South, is a city whose economic growth has transformed it from a provincial capital to a global city, one that could bid for and win the 1996 Summer Olympics. Yet the reality is that the exceptional growth of the region over the last twenty years has exacerbated inequality, particularly for African Americans. Atlanta, the city of Martin Luther King, Jr., remains one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Despite African American success in winning the mayor's office and control of the City Council, development plans have remained in the control of private business interests. Keating tells a number of troubling stories. The development of the Underground Atlanta, the construction of the rapid rail system (MARTA), the building of a new stadium for the Braves, the redevelopment of public housing, and the arrangements for the Olympic Games all share a lack of democratic process. Business and political elites ignored protests from neighborhood groups, the interests of the poor, and the advice of planners.Trade Review"Keating makes a unique contribution...this is an important addition to the literature on city planning, as well as on Atlanta. Keating builds a strong case that Atlanta has a history of an anti-planning mindset, and the origins of that mindset are readily explained. He has ample material to make his case." -Professor Clarence N. Stone, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, and author of Regime Politics "Larry Keating's study of Atlanta is more than a meticulous and provocative analysis of economic policy in one American city. It is also suggestive for the nation in showing how race and class intertwine to maintain economic injustice even after legal segregation has been abolished." -Howard Zinn, columnist for The Progressive, and author of A People's History of the United States "Skillfully blends the power analyses of modern Atlanta by Floyd Hunter and Clarence Stone with such classic exposes as those of Lincoln Steffens and Jane Jacobs to create a penetrating portrait of the 'Shame of a Southern City.' Larry Keating's landmark study should be read by historians, social scientists, city planners, decision makers and concerned city dwellers." -Dana F. White, Professor of Urban Studies, Emory University, and author of The Urbanists, 1865-1915 "This book is not just an historical expose on the city, but it's touted as shedding light on many issues such as corporate control of government, city politics and the Southern way of life. Keating ultimately reveals the imbalance between power and progress." -Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine "Keating's book offers a deeply critical analysis of urban planning and policy making in Atlanta's recent history...[he] has provided an excellent study of post-war urban policy and planning in Atlanta, while at the same time challenging the booster image of a rising global city promoted by a succession of elite decision-makers." -Urban HistoryTable of ContentsList of Maps and Tables Maps 1. Atlanta Metropolitan Region 2. Directions of Growth, Atlanta Metropolitan Region, 1980-1998 3. Atlanta Edge Cities 4. Census Black Groups More Than 80 Percent Black, Atlanta Metropolitan Region, 1990 5. Atlanta's Central Neighborhoods 6. Summerhill / Peoplestown / Mechanicsville and Surrounding Neighborhoods 7. Techwood / Clark-Howell Homes (Now Centennial Place) and Surrounding Neighborhoods Tables 1. Number of Jobs by Industry, Atlanta Region, 1980 and 1998 2. Population, Atlanta Region, 1980 and 1998 3. 1980 and 1990 Distribution of Occupations by Race and Sex, Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area 4. Atlanta Regional Unemployment Rates, 1980 and 1990 5. Atlanta and Regional Ratio of Black to White Unemployment 6. Atlanta and Regional Labor-Force Participation Rates (Percent), 1980 and 1990 7. Inequality in Household Income by Race and Family Type, Atlanta Region and City of Atlanta, 1980 and 1990 8. Inequality in Family Income Between Predominantly Black and White Atlanta Census Tracts, 1950 to 1990 9. Residential Dissimilarity of Blacks and Whites, 1940 to 1990 10. Inequality in Housing Values Among Predominantly Black and White Atlanta Census Tracts, 1950 to 1990 11. Inequality in Incidence of Housing for Which More Than 25 Percent of Income is Paid for Rent, Atlanta, 1970 to 1990 12. Inequality in Overcrowded Housing Among Predominantly White and Black Atlanta Census Tracts, 1950 to 1990 13. Degree of Inequality (Coefficient of Variation) Among Predominantly White and Black Atlanta Census Tracts, 1950 to 1990 14. Geographic Concentration of Poverty Among Blacks and Whites in Atlanta 15. Government Expenditures in Support of the 1996 Olympic Games (Figures in Millions of Dollars)

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Book SynopsisIn this book, Moira Kenney makes the case that Los Angeles better represents the spectrum of gay and lesbian community activism and culture than cities with a higher gay profile. Owing to its sprawling geography and fragmented politics, Los Angeles lacks a single enclave like the Castro in San Francisco or landmarks as prominent as the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, but it has a long and instructive history of community building. By tracking the terrain of the movement since the beginnings of gay liberation in 1960's Los Angeles, Kenney shows how activists lay claim to streets, buildings, neighborhoods, and, in the example of West Hollywood, an entire city.Exploiting the area's lack of cohesion, they created a movement that maintained a remarkable flexibility and built support networks stretching from Venice Beach to East LA. Taking a different path from San Francisco and New York, gays and lesbians in Los Angeles emphasized social services, decentralized communities (usually within ethnic neighborhoods), and local as well as national politics. Kenney's grounded reading of this history celebrates the public and private forms of activism that shaped a visible and vibrant community. Moira Rachel Kenney is the Research Director at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California, Berkeley.Trade Review"This is a fresh and fascinating approach to both social history and the geography of America's most cutting-edge and least understood city. This book sparkles with stories of Los Angeles' gay/lesbian and AIDS street activism through the decades, as well as serendipitous or smart strategies for staking spaces of our own--so crucial to our liberation. LA's leading role in U.S. gay history is finally claimed!" --Torie Osborn, former Executive Director, LA Gay and Lesbian Center and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; author of Coming Home to America "Mapping Gay L.A. will make a significant contribution to our knowledge in a number of ways: it reinforces the L.A. dimension to a gay/lesbian story overly dominated by San Francisco and New York; it brings lesbian issues into constant interplay with the broader concerns of the gay movement; it demonstrates how culture and space are intertwined. Kenney approaches her topic from a political activist's perspective, appropriate to the period of gay history. She is in command of her subject matter and the case studies are exemplary." --Dana Cuff, Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA "Kenney's much-needed book restores L.A. to its rightful place in the history of lesbian and gay America. It's highly readable and expertly told. The book's emphasis on place and political activism banishes the silences that have shrouded an important social revolution that is still going on." --Michael Dear, Director of the Southern California Studies Center at USC and author of The Postmodern Urban ConditionTable of ContentsList of Maps Foreword Robert Dawidoff Acknowledgments 1. Locating the Politics of Difference 2. Inclusion and Exclusion in West Hollywood 3. Beyond Gentrification: Social Services and the Redevelopment of Hollywood Boulevard 4. Separate Space and Separatism: Lesbian Culture and Community 5. Out of the Bars and into the Streets: Direct Action from Liberation to Transformation 6. The Remapped City Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhen you think of American immigration, what images come to mind? Ellis Island. East Side tenements. Pushcarts on Eighth Avenue. Little Italy. Chinatown. El Barrio. New York City has always been central to the immigrant experience in the United States. In the last three decades, the volume of immigration has increased as has the diversity of immigrant origins and experiences. Contemporary immigration conjures up old images but also some new ones: the sweatshops and ethnic neighborhoods are still there, but so are cell phones, faxes, e-mails, and the more intense and multilayered involvement of immigrants in the social, economic, and political life of both home and host societies.In this ambitious book, nineteen scholars from a broad range of disciplines bring our understanding of New York's immigrant communities up to date by exploring the interaction between economic globalization and transnationalization, demographic change, and the evolving racial, ethnic, gender dynamics in the City.Urban and suburban, Asian, European, Latin American, and Caribbean, men and women and children the essays here analyze the complex forces that shape the contemporary immigrant experience in New York City and the links between immigrant communities in New York and their countries of origin. Hector R. Cordero-Guzman is an Assistant Professor at the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University in New York City. Robert C. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College and part of the Barnard Project on Migration and Diasporas. Ramon Grosfoguel is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Boston College.Trade Review"Innovative and illuminating, this book is exactly what we need at this time: an examination of specific instances which capture the features, the meaning and the implications of transnationalism. This volume is exciting because it includes a younger generation of researchers. One of the book's strengths is that it combines a focus on migration with a focus on the city. Through this detailed lens, [the editors] make a contribution to our understanding of larger cross-boarder dynamics." --Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, and author of The Global City 2001 "One hears a lot about transnationalism these days. But the word is used so loosely that it often loses any real meaning. This book puts some meat on the bones of transnationalism by showing how it unfolds among various immigrant groups in one particular city--New York--not only now, but in the past. It reveals both the fascinating diversity and remarkable similarity of transnationalism as it plays out across different groups and times." --Douglas S. Massey, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania "These sure-handed editors have produced a rich, varied, and sophisticated picture of how immigration is changing the face of America's gateway city, New York. Exploring a dozen immigrant groups, the leading scholars reveal how class, gender, transnational ties, discrimination, and political action are shaping the formation of new Americans in a renewed city." --John Mollenkopf, Director, Center for Urban Research, CUNY Graduate Center, and co-author of Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st CenturyTable of ContentsIntroduction Robert C. Smith, Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, and Ramon Grosfoguel Part I: Transnationalization, Globalization and Migration 1. Transnationalism, Then and Now: New York Immigrants Today and at the Turn of the Century Nancy Foner 2. The Generation of Identity: Haitian Youth and the Transnational Nation-State Georges E. Fouron and Nina Glick Schiller 3. Political Incorporation and Re-Incorporation: Simultaneity in the Dominican Migrant Experience Pamela M. Graham 4. Suburban Transmigrants: Long Island's Salvadorans Sarah Mahler 5. The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules: The Political Dimension of Recent Chinese Immigration to New York Zai Liang 6. Gendered and Racialized Circulation-Migration: Implications for the Poverty and Work Experience of New York's Puerto Rican Women Dennis Conway, Adrian J. Bailey, and Mark Ellis Part II: Migration and Socio-Economic Incorporation in New York City 7. Class, Race, and Success: Indian-Americans Confront the American Dream Johanna Lessinger 8. Ethnic Niches and Racial Traps: Jamaicans in the New York Regional Economy Philip Kasinitz and Milton Vickerman 9. Neither Ignorance nor Bliss: Race, Racism and the West Indian Immigrant Experience Vilna Bashi 10. Peruvian Historical Networks for Migration in New York City Alex Julca 11. Entrepreneurship and Business Development among African-Americans, Koreans, and Jews: Exploring Some Structural Differences Jennifer Lee 12. When Co-ethnic Assets Become Liabilities: Mexicans, Ecuadorian and Chinese Garment Workers in New York City Margaret M. Chin

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Book SynopsisWhen you think of American immigration, what images come to mind? Ellis Island, East Side tenements, Pushcarts on Eighth Avenue, Little Italy, Chinatown, and El Barrio. New York City has always been central to the immigrant experience in the United States. In the last three decades, the volume of immigration has increased as has the diversity of immigrant origins and experiences. Contemporary immigration conjures up old images but also some new ones: the sweatshops and ethnic neighborhoods are still there, but so are cell phones, faxes, e-mails, and the more intense and multilayered involvement of immigrants in the social, economic, and political life of both home and host societies. In this ambitious book, nineteen scholars from a broad range of disciplines bring our understanding of New York's immigrant communities up-to-date by exploring the interaction between economic globalization and transnationalization, demographic change, and the evolving racial, ethnic, gender dynamics in the City. Urban and suburban, Asian, European, Latin American, and Caribbean, men and women and children the essays here analyze the complex forces that shape the contemporary immigrant experience in New York City and the links between immigrant communities in New York and their countries of origin.Hector R. Cordero-Guzman is an Assistant Professor at the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University in New York City. Robert C. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College and part of the Barnard Project on Migration and Diasporas. Ramon Grosfoguel is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Boston College.Trade Review"Innovative and illuminating, this book is exactly what we need at this time: an examination of specific instances which capture the features, the meaning and the implications of transnationalism. This volume is exciting because it includes a younger generation of researchers. One of the book's strengths is that it combines a focus on migration with a focus on the city. Through this detailed lens, [the editors] make a contribution to our understanding of larger cross-boarder dynamics." --Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, and author of The Global City 2001 "One hears a lot about transnationalism these days. But the word is used so loosely that it often loses any real meaning. This book puts some meat on the bones of transnationalism by showing how it unfolds among various immigrant groups in one particular city--New York--not only now, but in the past. It reveals both the fascinating diversity and remarkable similarity of transnationalism as it plays out across different groups and times." --Douglas S. Massey, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania "These sure-handed editors have produced a rich, varied, and sophisticated picture of how immigration is changing the face of America's gateway city, New York. Exploring a dozen immigrant groups, the leading scholars reveal how class, gender, transnational ties, discrimination, and political action are shaping the formation of new Americans in a renewed city." --John Mollenkopf, Director, Center for Urban Research, CUNY Graduate Center, and co-author of Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st CenturyTable of ContentsIntroduction Robert C. Smith, Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, and Ramon Grosfoguel Part I: Transnationalization, Globalization and Migration 1. Transnationalism, Then and Now: New York Immigrants Today and at the Turn of the Century Nancy Foner 2. The Generation of Identity: Haitian Youth and the Transnational Nation-State Georges E. Fouron and Nina Glick Schiller 3. Political Incorporation and Re-Incorporation: Simultaneity in the Dominican Migrant Experience Pamela M. Graham 4. Suburban Transmigrants: Long Island's Salvadorans Sarah Mahler 5. The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules: The Political Dimension of Recent Chinese Immigration to New York Zai Liang 6. Gendered and Racialized Circulation-Migration: Implications for the Poverty and Work Experience of New York's Puerto Rican Women Dennis Conway, Adrian J. Bailey, and Mark Ellis Part II: Migration and Socio-Economic Incorporation in New York City 7. Class, Race, and Success: Indian-Americans Confront the American Dream Johanna Lessinger 8. Ethnic Niches and Racial Traps: Jamaicans in the New York Regional Economy Philip Kasinitz and Milton Vickerman 9. Neither Ignorance nor Bliss: Race, Racism and the West Indian Immigrant Experience Vilna Bashi 10. Peruvian Historical Networks for Migration in New York City Alex Julca 11. Entrepreneurship and Business Development among African-Americans, Koreans, and Jews: Exploring Some Structural Differences Jennifer Lee 12. When Co-ethnic Assets Become Liabilities: Mexicans, Ecuadorian and Chinese Garment Workers in New York City Margaret M. Chin

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Book SynopsisPresents a chronological and topical description of the founding and growth of cities in the United States, from the first European settlements until 1920, addressing the economic, social, and political aspects of urban development. This book is useful for undergraduates enrolled in American history survey courses.

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Book SynopsisUrban historians have long portrayed suburbanization as the result of a bourgeois exodus from the city, coupled with the introduction of streetcars that enabled the middle class to leave the city for the more sylvan surrounding regions. Demonstrating that this is only a partial version of urban history, "Manufacturing Suburbs" reclaims the history of working-class suburbs by examining the development of industrial suburbs in the United States and Canada between 1850 and 1950. The contributors demonstrate that these suburbs developed in large part because of the location of manufacturing beyond city limits and the subsequent building of housing for the workers who labored within those factories.Through case studies of industrial suburbanization and industrial suburbs in several metropolitan areas (Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, and Montreal), "Manufacturing Suburbs" sheds light on a key phenomenon of metropolitan development before the Second World War. Robert Lewis is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto. He is the author of "Manufacturing Montreal: The Making of an Industrial Landscape, 1850 to 1930" and co-editor of "Urban History Review".Trade Review"The objectives of this collection of theoretically inclined and empirically defended essays by well-respected scholars of suburban-industrial growth are successfully met.The great value of this book, then, is the successful melding of a North American perspective that establishes a meaningful benchmark for further research in the field." The Canadian Historical Review "The foremost merit of the book lies in the quality of the different contributions, written by major researchers in the field of urban history. Together, they provide a comprehensive view of the pre-World War Two evolution of manufacturing in North American metropolitan regions and of its impact on their urban structure." Urban Studies "In Manufacturing Suburbs, edited by Robert Lewis, eleven authors have done a pioneering and impressive job of sorting out some of the many complexities of industrial suburbanization in the United States and Canada during the century from 1850 to 1950. All in all, Manufacturing Suburbs is an excellent study that should lead the way to further research into a hitherto neglected aspect of suburban history." The Journal of American History "At base, the arguments set out in this collection challenge a considerable amount of the collective wisdom about North American suburbs and will stimulate scholars and students to rethink what suburbs consist of and what the relationships are between cities and suburbs... This work strikes at the heart of scholars' thinking about what suburbia looks like and was/is and who or what lived/lives there." --Mary Corbin Sies, University of MarylandTable of ContentsPreface 1. Industry and the Suburbs Robert Lewis 2. Beyond the Crabgrass Frontier: Industry and the Spread of North American Cities, 1850-1950 Richard Walker and Robert Lewis 3. The Emergence of Industrial Districts in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Baltimore Edward K. Muller and Paul A. Groves 4. Model City? Industry and Urban Structure in Chicago Mary Beth Pudup 5. A City Transformed: Manufacturing Districts and Suburban Growth in Montreal, 1850-1929 Robert Lewis 6. Industry Builds Out the City: The Suburbanization of Manufacturing in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1850-1940 Richard Walker 7. Industrial Suburbs and the Growth of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, 1870-1920 Edward K. Muller 8. The Suburbanization of Manufacturing in Toronto, 1881-1951 Gunter Gad 9. "Nature's Workshop": Industry and Urban Expansion in Southern California, 1900-1950 Greg Hise 10. "The American Disease of Growth": Henry Ford and the Metropolitanization of Detroit, 1920-1940 Heather B. Barrow 11. Suburbanization and the Employment Linkage Richard Harris Notes About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisUrban historians have long portrayed suburbanization as the result of a bourgeois exodus from the city, coupled with the introduction of streetcars that enabled the middle class to leave the city for the more sylvan surrounding regions. Demonstrating that this is only a partial version of urban history, "Manufacturing Suburbs" reclaims the history of working-class suburbs by examining the development of industrial suburbs in the United States and Canada between 1850 and 1950. The contributors demonstrate that these suburbs developed in large part because of the location of manufacturing beyond city limits and the subsequent building of housing for the workers who labored within those factories.Through case studies of industrial suburbanization and industrial suburbs in several metropolitan areas (Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, and Montreal), "Manufacturing Suburbs" sheds light on a key phenomenon of metropolitan development before the Second World War. Robert Lewis is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto. He is the author of "Manufacturing Montreal: The Making of an Industrial Landscape, 1850 to 1930" and co-editor of "Urban History Review".Trade Review"The objectives of this collection of theoretically inclined and empirically defended essays by well-respected scholars of suburban-industrial growth are successfully met.The great value of this book, then, is the successful melding of a North American perspective that establishes a meaningful benchmark for further research in the field." The Canadian Historical Review "The foremost merit of the book lies in the quality of the different contributions, written by major researchers in the field of urban history. Together, they provide a comprehensive view of the pre-World War Two evolution of manufacturing in North American metropolitan regions and of its impact on their urban structure." Urban Studies "In Manufacturing Suburbs, edited by Robert Lewis, eleven authors have done a pioneering and impressive job of sorting out some of the many complexities of industrial suburbanization in the United States and Canada during the century from 1850 to 1950. All in all, Manufacturing Suburbs is an excellent study that should lead the way to further research into a hitherto neglected aspect of suburban history." The Journal of American History "At base, the arguments set out in this collection challenge a considerable amount of the collective wisdom about North American suburbs and will stimulate scholars and students to rethink what suburbs consist of and what the relationships are between cities and suburbs... This work strikes at the heart of scholars' thinking about what suburbia looks like and was/is and who or what lived/lives there." --Mary Corbin Sies, University of MarylandTable of ContentsPreface 1. Industry and the Suburbs Robert Lewis 2. Beyond the Crabgrass Frontier: Industry and the Spread of North American Cities, 1850-1950 Richard Walker and Robert Lewis 3. The Emergence of Industrial Districts in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Baltimore Edward K. Muller and Paul A. Groves 4. Model City? Industry and Urban Structure in Chicago Mary Beth Pudup 5. A City Transformed: Manufacturing Districts and Suburban Growth in Montreal, 1850-1929 Robert Lewis 6. Industry Builds Out the City: The Suburbanization of Manufacturing in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1850-1940 Richard Walker 7. Industrial Suburbs and the Growth of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, 1870-1920 Edward K. Muller 8. The Suburbanization of Manufacturing in Toronto, 1881-1951 Gunter Gad 9. "Nature's Workshop": Industry and Urban Expansion in Southern California, 1900-1950 Greg Hise 10. "The American Disease of Growth": Henry Ford and the Metropolitanization of Detroit, 1920-1940 Heather B. Barrow 11. Suburbanization and the Employment Linkage Richard Harris Notes About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisExamines social capital across social contexts and time periods within the city and the role of social networks, moving beyond typical definitions of social capitalTrade Review"This book is an important corrective to somewhat bland and self-evident understandings of social capital which tend to ignore the deeply contested nature of urban space." -CityTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Place that Loves You Back? - Richardson Dilworth Part I: Social Capital in Historical Context 1 The 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia: Elite Networks and Political Culture - Jerome Hodos; 2 Bonfires, Fistfights, and Roaring Cannons: Election Day and the Creation of Social Capital in the City of Philadelphia - Mark Brewin; 3 Community Advocacy and Volunteerism in Wissahickon Park, 1895-2005 - David R. Contosta and Carol L. Franklin Part II: Social Capital in Urban Education 4 Leveraging Social Capital: The University as Educator and Broker - Barbara Ferman; 5 Community-Based Education in West Philadelphia: The Promise and Limits of Social Capital Production - Melina Patterson Part III: Neighborhood-Based Social Capital and Local Institutions 6 Credit Unions and Social Capital in Philadelphia - Michael Janson; 7 The Comparative Disadvantage of African American-Owned Enterprises: Ethnic Succession and Social Capital in Black Communities - Jennifer Lee; 8 Whose Social Capital? How Economic Development Projects Disrupt Local Social Relations - Judith Goode and Robert T. O'Brien; 9 Rootedness, Isolation, and Social Capital in an Inner-City White Neighborhood - Patricia Stern Smallacombe; 10 Wellsprings of Social Capital: African American Churchwomen in Philadelphia - Valeria Harvell Conclusion: The Declining Political Value of Social Capital - Matthew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg

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Book SynopsisModel City Blues tells the story of how regular people, facing a changing city landscape, fought for their own model of the \u201cideal city\u201d by creating grassroots plans for urban renewal. Filled with vivid descriptions of significant moments in a protracted struggle, it offers a street-level account of organized resistance to institutional plans to transform New Haven, Connecticut in the 1960s. Anchored in the physical spaces and political struggles of the city, it brings back to center stage the individuals and groups who demanded that their voices be heard. By reexamining the converging class- and race-based movements of 1960s New Haven, Mandi Jackson helps to explain the city's present-day economic and political struggles. More broadly, by closely analyzing particular sites of resistance in New Haven, Model City Blues employs multiple academic disciplines to redefine and reimagine the roles of everyday city spaces in building social movements and creating urban landscapes.Trade Review"Model City Blues breaks new ground reassessing New Haven politically through the lens of ethnographic and historic research. Through an urban context, Jackson synthesizes the cultural and economic foundations of past and future social movements. This book is the most impressive culmination of the most significant social and political research on New Haven in at least a generation." -Immanuel Ness, Brooklyn College, City University of New YorkTable of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Introduction The Interstate and the Demonstration City: Master Planning and Maximum Feasible Participation Contested Spaces in a Model City Neighborhoods and Movement Spaces on the Ring Road Map Oak Street Dixwell The Hill State Street Downtown Chapter 1--'The Ghosts of Oak Street's Paved Ravines:' The Oak Street Project, the Construction of Consensus, and the Birth of the Slumless City The Planning Tableau and the Experts' Dilemma Creating Consensus and Illustrating Progress The Progress Pavilion: "Watch the Picture Change!" "Very Minimum" Dissent Chapter 2-On Dixwell Avenue: Civil Rights and the Street The Mayor's Proposal Two Dixwells, One Corner A New Kind of Project Taking the Street Understanding the Avenue Remaking "New Haven's Harlem" Chapter 3: The Hill Neighborhood Union and Freedom Summer North: Citizen Participation and Movement Spaces in a 'Project Area' The Hill The Hill Neighborhood Union The Hill Rent Strikes The Freedom School The Children's Park Hill Cooperative Housing The National Commission on Urban Problems: "Too Many People Are a Blighting Influence" Chapter 4-- Maximum Feasible Urban Management: The "Automatic" City, and the Hill Parents Association Hill Reconnaissance A Particular Kind of "Model" The Hill Parents Association Bracing for Summer Chapter 5-Renewal, Riot, and Resistance: Reclaiming 'Model Cities' The Riot A "War Zone" on Congress Avenue The Aftermath Whose "Model Cities"? Chapter 6-The City and the Six-Lane Highway: Bread & Roses and Parking Garages Bread & Roses Unmasking the Ring Road Route 34: "Like Blowing Into a Hurricane" The Language of Agitation Public Re-Hearings People Against the Garage "You Can't Argue With Concrete" Chapter 7-Downtown Lives and Palaces: From a 'Space of Freedom to a 'Space of Exclusion' The Strand Hotel The Park Plaza Defining Home "Clear a Space:" Fighting for a Different Downtown "Pulling Power, Buying Power, Growing Power" Between the Strand and the Plaza Conclusion: "The After" Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisLooking for regional solutions to local limitations of opportunity in education, jobs and housingTrade Review"By redefining what it means to be a city, this book takes urbanists well into the 21st century. Using the Philadelphia metropolis as an elaborate case study, the authors show us that cities cannot be fully understood apart from their regions, that regions unconsciously govern themselves, and that education, housing, and employment are vital for a region's future. With a keen eye and refreshing insights, the authors have brought the study of the metropolis to a new level and one which should serve as a model for other scholars."—Hank V. Savitch, Brown and Williamson Distinguished Research Professor, University of Louisville, Urban & Public AffairsTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Introduction: Expanding the Focus 1. Expansion, Decline, and Geographies of Inequality 2. Employment Opportunity 3. Housing Opportunity 4. Educational Opportunity 5. The Region's Communities and the Value Proposition 6. Who Takes Responsibility for Addressing Inequality? Appendix 1: Constructing the Community Typology Appendix 2: NAICS Coding for Industrial Classification Appendix 3: Lowest- and Higest-Achieving Districts: Organizational and Housing Characteristics Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive national study of inner-ring suburbs in the United StatesTrade Review“An engaging contemporary study of twenty years of suburban change in the U.S., Once the American Dream is more comprehensive than earlier works on suburbs, focusing on differences among suburbs rather than the city/suburban differences. The breadth of stories told against the analysis helps provide good insights and makes the national picture more local to readers. Hanlon ably demonstrates how to apply useful methodologies to the study of contemporary metropolitan geography.”—David L. Phillips, Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of VirginiaTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Once the American Dream 2. Decline Is a New Suburban Reality 3. Defining Inner-Ring Suburbs 4. Forces Shaping Inner-Ring Suburbs 5. Sidestepping Inner-Ring Suburbs 6. Declining Inner-Ring Suburbs 7. Suburbs in Crisis 8. Different Types of Inner-Ring Suburbs 9. Fixing Inner-Ring suburbs 10. Conclusion Appendix References Index

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive national study of inner-ring suburbs in the United StatesTrade Review“An engaging contemporary study of twenty years of suburban change in the U.S., Once the American Dream is more comprehensive than earlier works on suburbs, focusing on differences among suburbs rather than the city/suburban differences. The breadth of stories told against the analysis helps provide good insights and makes the national picture more local to readers. Hanlon ably demonstrates how to apply useful methodologies to the study of contemporary metropolitan geography.”—David L. Phillips, Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of VirginiaTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Once the American Dream 2. Decline Is a New Suburban Reality 3. Defining Inner-Ring Suburbs 4. Forces Shaping Inner-Ring Suburbs 5. Sidestepping Inner-Ring Suburbs 6. Declining Inner-Ring Suburbs 7. Suburbs in Crisis 8. Different Types of Inner-Ring Suburbs 9. Fixing Inner-Ring suburbs 10. Conclusion Appendix References Index

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Book SynopsisIn the Margins Book Award Winner Shawn Harrington returned to Marshall High School as an assistant coach years after appearing as a player in the iconic basketball documentary film Hoop Dreams. In January of 2014, Marshall’s struggling team was about to improve after the addition of a charismatic but troubled player. Everything changed, however, when two young men opened fire on Harrington’s car as he drove his daughter to school. Using his body to shield her, Harrington was struck and paralyzed. The mistaken-identity shooting was followed by a series of events that had a devastating impact on Harrington and Marshall’s basketball family. Over the next three years, as a shocking number of players were murdered, it became obvious that the dream of the game providing a better life had nearly dissolved.All the Dreams We've Dreamed is a true story of courage, endurance, and friendship in one of America's most violent neighborhoods. Author Rus Bradburd, who has an intimate forty-year relationship to Chicago basketball, tells Shawn’s story with empathy and care, exploring the intertwined tragedies of gun violence, health care failure, racial assumptions, struggling educational systems, corruption in athletics—and the hope that can survive them all.Trade Review"With heart and verve, Rus Bradburd takes us on this extraordinary journey of friendship, contrition, and heroism, all in the confines of a storied basketball program on Chicago's West Side, all amid the persistent violence of the city. It's one compelling read." Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here"Two decades after the film Hoop Dreams , the stories unfolding at Marshall High School are more important than ever before. Anyone interested in courage, stamina, education, race, health care, guns, or American society will find All the Dreams We've Dreamed a riveting read. Shawn Harrington is an American hero, and his story needs to be heard." Arne Duncan, former US Secretary of Education, founder of C.R.E.D."This unflinchingly honest work insinuates its way into the reader's psyche the way only great books can. Unforgettable." Booklist

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Book SynopsisFirst appearing in The New Yorker, Danielle Allen’s Cuz announced the arrival of one of our most gifted literary memoirists. In this “compassionate retelling of an abjectly tragic story” (New York Times), Danielle Allen—a prize-winning scholar—recounts her heroic efforts to rescue Michael Alexander Allen, her beloved baby cousin, who was arrested at fifteen for an attempted carjacking. Tried as an adult and sentenced to thirteen years, Michael served eleven. Three years later, he was dead. Why did this gifted young man, who dreamed of being a firefighter and a writer, end up murdered? Why did he languish in prison? And why at fifteen was he in an alley in South Central Los Angeles, holding a gun while trying to steal someone’s car? Hailed as a “literary miracle” (Washington Post), this fierce family memoir makes mass incarceration nothing less than a new American tragedy.Trade Review"A literary miracle of form and content. The book pleads with us to find the moral imagination to break the American pattern of racial abuse. Allen’s ambitious, breathtaking book challenges the moral composition of the world it inhabits by telling all who listen: I loved my cousin and he loved me, and I know he’d be alive if you loved him, too." -- Kiese Laymon - Washington Post"A compassionate retelling of an abjectly tragic story...Among the most valuable contributions Allen makes is forcing us to ask: To what end are we locking up our children? Are we not foreclosing their options before their lives have even begun?...Allen’s analysis of gang culture—or “the parastate,” as she calls it, with its own bylaws and tragic form of appeal—may be where she’s at her ferocious best" -- Jennifer Senior - New York Times""[Cuz] address[es] issues worth pondering: how codes of masculinity constrain and cripple men, the lure of violence, the mysteries of human personality and the debts family members owe one another in dire circumstances…In writing about her cousin, Allen is also elegizing other black men victimized by poverty, drugs and unequal justice. Her blend of personal anguish and social consciousness evokes not just [John Edgar] Wideman, but Jesmyn Ward's 2013 memoir, Men We Reaped."" -- Julia M. Klein - Chicago Tribune"Allen’s memoir, Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A., is a doleful and stirring narrative of how Michael Allen Alexander’s magnetic smile slowly dimmed until he was found shot to death in the passenger seat of a car in Los Angeles…. Allen’s heartbreak gives way to a well-researched expedition." -- Otis R. Taylor, Jr. - San Francisco Chronicle"She’s rightfully angry at what happened to her cousin, but it doesn’t hide her empathy for families who endure hardship to visit their imprisoned loved ones, and it doesn’t lessen her humanity toward the people whose imprisonment doesn’t make sense. That, mixed with an aching, soaring joy are what you’ll find in 'Cuz,' and it’s going to make you think—hard. Can you afford to miss that? No, make no mistake." -- Terri Schlichenmeyer - Oakland Post"The shattering story of her young cousin…'Cuz' is a powerful family memoir and study of the criminal justice system." -- Tom Beer - Newsday"Allen, whose writing is creative and accessible, uses her finely tuned talent to fold Michael’s fate into the gathering storms of the U.S. criminal-justice system and Los Angeles’ gang-related and racial turmoil. Both a searching, personal elegy and a sure-footed lamentation of the systems meant to protect us, this is a searing must-read." -- Annie Bostrom - Booklist, Starred review"[Allen] puts a face to the numbing statistics of incarcerated young black boys and men. . . . At its heart, Allen’s book is both an outcry and entreaty as she grapples with a painful reality." -- Publishers Weekly"A literary and political event like Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark, Danielle Allen’s Cuz is an elegiac memoir and social jeremiad born out of the tragedy of mass incarceration. A loving cousin paying tribute to her brilliant and beloved but troubled 'cuz,' Allen hits a grand slam." -- Henry Louis Gates Jr., Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, and host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots"What starts as a personal memoir, an effort to resurrect from oblivion a beloved cousin who died young, modulates in Allen’s hands into a cool, reasoned, but ultimately devastating indictment of the War on Drugs and the sentencing regime it has given birth to. In plain terms, stripped of the jargon of the social sciences, she shows us what can await if you are young, black, and unlucky in today’s United States." -- J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Life and Times of Michael K"In this narrative of freedom and incarceration, education and disadvantage, rehabilitation and punishment, Danielle Allen paints an unforgettable portrait of a cousin she loved. The pacing is brisk and novelistic, but the message is large and clear: we need urgently to reform the system through which we process juveniles who commit crime, because the current system perpetuates the very injustices it was designed to address." -- Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree"Cuz is riveting, painfully personal, and profoundly lucid in its history telling. Allen's crystalline voice amazes despite the most bewildering behemoth topic." -- Quiara Alegría Hudes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Water by the Spoonful

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Book SynopsisShamus Award–winning author Michael Sears brings Queens, New York, to literary life in this crime series debut featuring a somewhat seedy lawyer with a heart of gold (or at least gold plate). Queens, New York—the most diverse place on earth. Native son Ted Molloy knows these streets like the back of his hand. Ted was once a high-powered Manhattan lawyer, but after a spectacular fall from grace, he has found himself back on his home turf, scraping by as a foreclosure profiteer. It’s a grubby business, but a safe one—until Ted’s case sourcer, a mostly reformed small-time conman named Richie Rubiano, turns up murdered shortly after tipping Ted off to an improbably lucrative lead. With Richie’s widow on his back and shadows of the past popping up at every turn, Ted realizes he’s gotten himself embroiled in a murder investigation. His quest for the truth will take him all over Queens, plunging him into the machinations of greedy developers, mobsters, enraged activists, old litigator foes and old-school New York City operators.

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Book SynopsisTed Molloy, a Queens attorney with a troublesome penchant for noble causes, investigates the murder of a corrupt immigration lawyer in the sharply observed follow-up to the 2022 Nero Award winner Tower of Babel.Ted Molloy has hit his stride with a foreclosure investment scheme that brings him into contact with a cast of shady characters across New York’s most diverse borough, from Hollis to Howard Beach. On the side, he helps his activist girlfriend, Kenzie, with her work to halt construction on “the Spike”—a corporate-backed development project in Corona that would displace the largely immigrant communities surrounding it.Stop the Spike is heating up: Kenzie spends most of her waking hours fending off smear campaigns and touring community spaces in Queens to spread the word, which she can do thanks to Mohammed, Ted and Kenzie’s close friend, a recent Yemeni immigrant and most expedient cab driver. But when Kenzie learns that Mohammed’s immigration lawyer may be taking advantage of him financially, she decides to snoop around at the law offices—and comes face to face with a dead body and a shadowy figure, fleeing the scene. Now Kenzie is the sole witness to a potential murder. Can Ted and his team get to the bottom of the murder so they can stop the Spike once and for all?Explore every shady corner of Queens in this keen mystery, the second installment of award-winning author Michael Sears’s critically acclaimed series.

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Book SynopsisAfter Darkexplores the experience of nighttime within ancient urban settings.

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Book SynopsisFrom Perfectly Impossible author Elizabeth Topp comes an unforgettably searing novel about a band of mothers who are forced to reckon with themselves after the unexpected loss of one of their own. When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves. Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend. Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams. Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before—or so it seems. Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families? And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death? For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.Trade Review“[T]he novel’s scathing observations about Manhattan's wealthiest parents are wildly entertaining. An engrossing, unflinching critique of elite parenting in Manhattan.” —Kirkus Reviews “Topp packs a lot into the narrative while thoroughly fleshing out each of her protagonists. There’s much to enjoy in this character-driven portrait of the high-stakes world of New York private school admissions.” —Publishers Weekly “In this haunting novel, Topp delicately peels back the gilt layers of privilege to expose the true cost of living amid Manhattan’s 1 percent, where the things that matter—ease, self-esteem, and love—are always tantalizingly out of reach…promised in the next purchase, the next investment, but never delivered. Topp dares to ask, If your child’s admission to an elite school could be an entrée into this world, would you take it? Should you?” —Nicola Kraus, coauthor of The Nanny Diaries “Liz Topp brilliantly gets into the minds of five different women as they deal with the pride-swallowing process of applying to kindergarten in New York City. What could have been a predictable jaunt is made fresh and intriguing with a plot twist in the first chapter. You won’t be able to put it down until the last.” —Laurie Gelman, author of Class Mom “Sharp, unflinching, and dirty with secrets, City People speaks volumes about the isolation of motherhood, the shades of ambition, and the power of loss to push us together or pull us apart. In overlapping narratives that radiate from one cataclysmic event, Elizabeth Topp deftly explores the chasm between public persona and private reality, forcing us to question our own preoccupation with image versus truth.” —Nora Zelevansky, author of Competitive Grieving “With echoes of Big Little Lies, City People offers a sharply observed portrait of Manhattan private school culture, disrupted by one mother’s hidden pain and tragedy.” —Robin Kirman, author of The End of Getting Lost

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Book SynopsisFrom Perfectly Impossible author Elizabeth Topp comes an unforgettably searing novel about a band of mothers who are forced to reckon with themselves after the unexpected loss of one of their own. When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves. Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend. Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams. Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before—or so it seems. Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families? And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death? For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.Trade Review“[T]he novel’s scathing observations about Manhattan's wealthiest parents are wildly entertaining. An engrossing, unflinching critique of elite parenting in Manhattan.” —Kirkus Reviews “Topp packs a lot into the narrative while thoroughly fleshing out each of her protagonists. There’s much to enjoy in this character-driven portrait of the high-stakes world of New York private school admissions.” —Publishers Weekly “In this haunting novel, Topp delicately peels back the gilt layers of privilege to expose the true cost of living amid Manhattan’s 1 percent, where the things that matter—ease, self-esteem, and love—are always tantalizingly out of reach…promised in the next purchase, the next investment, but never delivered. Topp dares to ask, If your child’s admission to an elite school could be an entrée into this world, would you take it? Should you?” —Nicola Kraus, coauthor of The Nanny Diaries “Liz Topp brilliantly gets into the minds of five different women as they deal with the pride-swallowing process of applying to kindergarten in New York City. What could have been a predictable jaunt is made fresh and intriguing with a plot twist in the first chapter. You won’t be able to put it down until the last.” —Laurie Gelman, author of Class Mom “Sharp, unflinching, and dirty with secrets, City People speaks volumes about the isolation of motherhood, the shades of ambition, and the power of loss to push us together or pull us apart. In overlapping narratives that radiate from one cataclysmic event, Elizabeth Topp deftly explores the chasm between public persona and private reality, forcing us to question our own preoccupation with image versus truth.” —Nora Zelevansky, author of Competitive Grieving “With echoes of Big Little Lies, City People offers a sharply observed portrait of Manhattan private school culture, disrupted by one mother’s hidden pain and tragedy.” —Robin Kirman, author of The End of Getting Lost

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Book SynopsisHow will climate change affect our lives? Where will its impacts be most deeply felt? Are we doing enough to protect ourselves from the coming chaos? In Extreme Cities, Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion's share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. Today, the majority of the world's megacities are located in coastal zones, yet few of them are adequately prepared for the floods that will increasingly menace their shores. Instead, most continue to develop luxury waterfront condos for the elite and industrial facilities for corporations. These not only intensify carbon emissions, but also place coastal residents at greater risk when water levels rise.In Extreme Cities, Dawson offers an alarming portrait of the future of our cities, describing the efforts of Staten Island, New York, and Shishmareff, Alaska residents to relocate; Holland's models for defending against the seas; and the development of New York City before and after Hurricane Sandy. Our best hope lies not with fortified sea walls, he argues. Rather, it lies with urban movements already fighting to remake our cities in a more just and equitable way. As much a harrowing study as a call to arms Extreme Cities is a necessary read for anyone concerned with the threat of global warming, and of the cities of the world.Trade ReviewExtreme Cities is a ground-breaking investigation of the vulnerability of our cities in an age of climate chaos. -- Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.orgA substantive contribution to the growing dialogue about our response-or lack thereof-to climate change. * Kirkus Reviews *Dawson makes a convincing case that, unless urban dwellers and civic leaders engage in a fundamental reconceptualization of the city and whom it serves, the future of urban life is dim. * Publishers Weekly *The way we design and live in cities will determine humanity's ability to avoid an anthropogenic mass extinction event in the coming century. Dawson makes this vividly clear in Extreme Cities, laying out in detail the nature of the problem and some possible positive actions we can take. Crucial to his argument is the fact that technological solutions will not be enough, so that we need to drastically reform the capitalist economic system to properly price and value the biosphere and human lives. His point that social justice is now a necessary survival strategy makes this not just a meticulous history and analysis of our situation, but also an exciting call to action. -- Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Red Mars trilogyA refreshingly different perspective on climate change. * Choice *Extreme Cities takes on the needed work of slowing down to chronicle and consider this meantime, without shying away from its messiness.More than simply lay out the existence of disparities, it illuminates the relationship between them. -- Liz Koslov * Public Books *[Ashley Dawson] cuts through the green capitalist hype and shows instead that life under climate change has grown increasingly precarious for working-class people living in major urban centers in the twenty-first century... A sweeping narrative that ties together disparate calamities. -- Zachary Alexis * International Socialist Review *

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