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The South Side: The Racial Transformation of an American Neighborhood (Glas, 21) Kindle Edition

4.1 out of 5 stars 33

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the 1960s, Chicago's South Side changed from a predominantly Jewish to a mainly black neighborhood. Having grown up there, Rosen experienced this white flight and decided to conduct a series of interviews with former neighbors and friends, asking them how fear had spread so rapidly and why liberal people appeared to have become bigots. The author is a composer for the theater, and he draws on this career to format the interviews into a type of play, featuring 15 composite characters from both the black and the Jewish communities. Especially interesting are stories of how the first synagogue got started and why it faltered during the racial changes in the neighborhood and had to be relocated. The Jewish residents passionately describe their feelings of betrayal and hurt from the synagogue's loss. Also fascinating are reactions from the black community, past and present, who felt a mixture of confusion, rejection and anger when their white neighbors claimed to be moving because they wanted "better schools." After these admissions, however, the book suffers from repetition, and the 15 characters are not distinguished enough from one another. Each time Rosen identifies a factor for the change, such as whites' suspicion of increased crime from black neighbors, each character comments on the issue without always adding something meaningful to the debate. Although the author's intentions are noble, his method is questionable and, ultimately, unsatisfying.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Rosen examines the phenomenon of white flight in a small neighborhood on the south side of Chicago in the late 1960s. Currently a writer for the musical theater, he was in high school when these wrenching changes took place. In an attempt to understand what happened, he interviewed his former neighbors 30 years later. The result is a composite of narratives detailing the fear, sense of betrayal, and confusion that took place when middle-class blacks moved into a white, middle-class, largely Jewish neighborhood. The oral-history format lends a sense of action and movement to the material and conveys the emotional aspects of this situation. However, presenting personal accounts in a drama format limits the book's usefulness as a research tool. This would complement other, more substantive sources such as Michael Lerner's Jews & Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (Dutton, 1996). For larger public libraries.?Deborah Bigelow, Leonia P.L., Little Falls, NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009W4BWKM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ivan R. Dee; 1st edition (August 17, 1999)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 17, 1999
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1293 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 194 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 33

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Louis Rosen
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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
33 global ratings

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