Customer Reviews

Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest for the American Dream in the Age of Crack

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The book doesn't tell it all, but it's close. I would recommend it to all.
Marianna, at one time, carried the nickname of 'Little Detroit'.
I graduated with Otis in the Lee Senior High School class of 1986 so I lived this story firsthand.
There is no exaggeration that he received a standing ovation during the graduation ceremonies. He was considered a hero among many of my classmates (very unfortunately.)
Otis was always soft spoken (at least around me) yet I never saw anyone try to provoke him.
In Marianna you either work on a farm, work for the city or county gov't, work for the (only one) local industry or you're unemployed.
I have since departed from Marianna, but I'm not far away - I still visit family and friends there on a regular basis.
I've always thought all social services workers should be interned in small rural areas such as that of Marianna - maybe they would have a better perspective on what I call 'the REAL world'.
YOU should have a visit sometime!

I lived through this period (late teens) in Detroit and can attest to the influence of the Detroit Drug organizations. In fact, they are probably understated in this book. It was an invigorating, exciting, yet somewhat frightening time to be alive.

But enough about that, it's an excellent read, perhaps a little on the "academic" side with the sociological profile of Arkansas.

But rest assured, Billy Joe, White Boy Rick, Larry, and some of the others were definitely celebrities. As a high school student, we knew who they all were.

I am an Arkansan and a Southerner, and this book provides great insight into Southern culture. Adler shows the reader what happens when people are denied fair treatment. He takes the reader on a journey from a small Arkansas town to a large Northern drug empire. The reader will be a much better person for having taken the trip.

The story of how the Chambers Brothers built an empire out of crack cocaine in Detroit in the 1980s. I was living in downtown Detroit during the time that crack arrived, and it was frightening to see the changes it brought to the city in a short time. Crack addicts aren't like junkies; junkies buy smack, shoot up and for the next few hours they're cruising, blissed out. Crack addicts are different- after they smoke crack, they just want more. Crack keeps promising a better high it never quite delivers. And crack destroys the minds of addicts the way smack never did. My neighborhood became, in a few years, a dangerous place to be outdoors at night. Four people- one an infant- were killed within two blocks of my house in one year by addicts.

This book is the best single volume I've ever seen on the lure and the effects of the drug trade in the city, and on the history of the southern US and the economics and race relations that serve as a backdrop to the story. It's meticulously researched and detailed, and the author had the full cooperation of almost all the principles involved. Riveting reading.

This is a tale of inner-city enterprise to chill a good Republican's blood (although libertarians will cheer). Adler has used his impressive access to the Chambers family to spin a great yarn, but that's not all. "Land of Opportunity" is also a subtle but effective polemic on America's up-by-the-bootstraps myth.

After watching a documentary about the Chambers' Brothers, additional reading about this family was mandatory. This family, from a small rural town in Arkansas, garnered national attention from non other than fellow Arkansan, Bill Clinton, at the 1988 National Democratic Convention. William Adler documents details that while in no way excuses the deplorable and destructive choices and behavior of the Chambers' brothers, lend plausible insight into social factors that make certain, immediate gratification and fast money, seem the only option available in the eyes of some misguided individuals. For anyone interested in one family's tale that sadly mimicks and represents the story of so many others, this book provides a well-rounded view of what can happen when an uncertain family foundation dangerously mixes with negative socio-economic issues.

A thorough, well-written, engaging story of siblings from a large family facing oppressive racism and few economic options in rural Arkansas, who built a multi-million dollar drug empire in Detroit. Twelve years on, Alder's book is as relevant as ever. Illegal drugs and the collective harm they cause society are oddly absent from the national debate. The new boogeypeople now, of course, are immigrant workers. But drugs continue to ravage urban and rural communities, and middle-class voters become ever more disenchanted, politicians feed the the red herring of jobs lost to border jumpers to keep us all from focusing on the core issues. Those issues, of course, are money and access to it. Though few will discuss as much openly, especially in America, those born into the "lower" classes have nearly no real chance at comfort and success, and those in power have no interest in upsetting the status quo. For the vast majority stuck in the middle, the daily grind of work, school, and child care leaves little time for pushing for significant change. And this all, of course, suits the average politician just fine. Middle class voters aren't losing their jobs to immigrant workers -- but they're having trouble making ends meet in increasingly expensive suburbs. Likewise, the average drug dealer isn't ruining lives that wouldn't be ruined in some other manner (think about it: how many junkies started as truly productive members of society?). But it's much easier to send SWAT teams into crack houses than to address the motivating issues of bad schools and weak local economies.

Alder makes the reader confront these questions. He spares no one -- the Chambers brothers are not, by any stretch, sympathetic characters. They are, however, very practical characters. Throughout Alder's narrative, I was reminded of Ed Harris's quote from "Apollo 13": "let's work the problem, people." For the Chambers family, the problem was a lack of any sort of opportunity whatsoever in a South that remained as segregated and stratified as ever. For them the solution was simple and market-oriented: supply an in-demand product at a competitive price, with unsurpassed customer support. The problems facing the poor today are much the same, and the solutions are still missing.

Land of Opportunity is an intriguing book that steps away from the simple glorification of drug dealing and "hood living". William Adler did a superb job of investigative reporting. This book not only chronicles the rise and fall of the Chamber Brothers, it details the socioeconomic conditions that help create them. Although their actions should never be accepted, this book adequately explains why such a horrible decision was feasible to someone in that situation. Adler investigates not only the Chambers, but the economies of the Mississippi Delta and Detroit during Reagonomics. In one of the most enlightening moments in the book, the true nature of the war on drugs is established when he discusses the sentencing of Chambers and associates, including their suppliers. This book is a must read for all who believe the war on drugs will be won with tougher sentencing and mandatory minimums.

I work with inner city youth and grew up in Housing projects during the 70's and 80's I actually watch with morbid curosity crack seduce and control our young black men and destroy families. This book was so close to home that at times I felt as if I was reading an autobiography of my childhood. What struk me most about this portrayal of drug dealers were their business savy and at same time their studipity. How four young men from the south could actually take over drug trade but yet didnt have sense to move away from the hood or to open bank accounts. I've always felt that street hustlers are smarter than the average wall street tthree piece suit wearing man. I would like to see a follow up on where the brothers are now in 1998 if any are actually out of prison and moving on with their lives.

This book is very interesting. It's not just about some drug dealers. It's about the economy, about young, poor black folk from Arkansas, about being enterprising in a bad economy, about filling a need. It's a really good, complicated book. But yes I recommend it if this is something that interests you. Also it has a lot in it about Detroit, my hometown.