Customer Reviews

City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami

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4 star:		(1)
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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.

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.