City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami [Perfect Paperback]

Alejandro Portes (Author), Alex Stepick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0520089324 | ISBN-13: 978-0520089327

"The authors reveal how the Cuban success story has transformed the character of Miami while delineating more sharply the identity of other ethnic communities." --New York Times Book Review
"Makes a case for the importance of political capital . . . in building ethnic solidarity."--Contemporary Sociology

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Challenging a classical economic theory that the development of a city is governed by commercial and geographic imperatives, sociology professors Portes (Johns Hopkins) and Stepick (Florida International) show that Miami is the creation of "chance and individual wills." Having nothing in particular to offer except sun and sea, Miami seemed destined to be a tourist and retirement haven until Carribean politics turned it into a dynamic international city and what the authors call the "nation's first full-fledged experiment in bicultural living in the contemporary era." They present an unusually rich history of the city from Ponce de Leon to the present, but the focus is squarely on the migrations of Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in the 1970s and 1980s, and on the effects of their ascendancy on the established population of Anglos, Native Americans and African Americans. Much of the authors' highly readable material is drawn from studies funded by the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A perceptive appreciation of Miami and what makes it tick, from a pair of sociologists who understand that anecdotal evidence can be as illuminating as statistical abstracts. Drawing on demographic data, personal observations, interviews, newspaper articles, and allied sources, Portes (Johns Hopkins Univ.) and Stepick (Florida International Univ.) profile a city in which cultural diversity is a convulsive reality. Noting that Miami has become the Caribbean's de facto capital in the more than three decades since Castro seized Cuba, the authors point out that political events, rather than economic or geographic advantages, have made Miami a world-class entrep“t--a reversal of the way in which America's urban centers usually develop. After providing a brief history of the Sunshine State and its settlement, Portes and Stepick offer detailed human-scale accounts of the immigrant groups that changed a sleepy winter resort into a teeming year-round metropolis with a Hispanic cast. Bourgeois Cubans bent on escaping Castro's Communism were the first to arrive in force. While restructuring their adoptive city's socioeconomic and political institutions, these exiles were joined by less favored compatriots (the so-called Marielitos), Haitians, and Nicaraguans fleeing the Sandinistas. By 1990, 49.2% of greater Miami's population was Latino, up from 4.0% in 1950; by contrast, Anglos (the local name for whites) represented but 30.3% of the total, with blacks (native-born or otherwise) at 19.5%. As the authors make clear, the shift in the ethnic balance of power has not been without serious frictions--but they conclude that, once Castro leaves the stage, assimilation pressures could prove stronger than the ties that now bind and divide Miami's disparate communities. A municipal report that offers clues to what could be in store for other of America's border towns. A fine complement to David Rieff's The Exile (p. 773). (Illustrations) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (August 12, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520089324
• ISBN-13: 978-0520089327
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good socioeconomics, but dated, March 4, 2007

By 

Adam Harpool (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami (Perfect Paperback)

City on the Edge is one of the finest books written on the socioeconomic dynamics of Miami and Dade County. The overall history of the city is only lightly treated (and unfortunately, there are few works on the history of South Florida) as the book instead focuses mostly on developments in Miami's recent history, namely from the 1960's forward, as it began its Anglo to Latino "transformation." Be warned, however, that the book is somewhat dated (published in '93 originally, hence 4 stars instead of 5); Miami is a booming, complicated, rapidly evolving city and has changed fairly significantly since then, but the underlying city culture (and it's quirky, problematic socioeconomics) are still there, as analysed by this book. The analysis and overview of the various black groups in Miami in the book was also very revealing.

3.0 out of 5 stars Miami shuffle...., January 31, 2011

By 

pachamama "pachamama" (Liberty City, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami (Perfect Paperback)

This book shows much relevance up until the early 1990s but it also suffers from being dated because Miami is a city in constant shuffle. Change doesn't occur but shuffling of priorities and communities in Miami because the individuals running City and State politics have always been invested in maintaining a similar status quo. White flight occurred in the early 1980s with Miami rebellions of 80, 82 and 89 but the violence of gentrification is missing from any chapters in this book because this phenomenon has been taking place within the last 10 years. It's important to read or re-read Black Miami in the Twentieth Century by local Miami historian Marvin Dunn. There have also been a mass migration of Brazilian, Peruvian, Central American people whose impact on the economy like the Haitian and African-American community has been over looked by major City and State politicians.