Book Review: Gang Leader For a Day

Sudhir Venkatesh was a sociology graduate student at the University of Chicago when he set out for the Lake Park projects to observe the urban poor, armed only with a questionaire that asked questions like "how does it feel to be black and poor?" His first encounter was with a group of young members of the Black Kings gang who suspected him of being a spy for the rival Latin Kings and debated whether to kill him.

The gang leader came over, interviewed him, made fun of his questionaire, and decided that he wasn't a threat. If you want to learn, the gang leader told him, you need to come over again and hang with us. He spent much of the next five years doing just that.

Venkatesh has a great story to tell, and he tells it very well. He gradually learned a lot about the economics, politics, and society of the projects and the crack gang, and was let into the confidence of many of them. Crack gang leaders, street hustlers, and prostitutes, it seems, are as eager as anybody else to have their story told.

His combination of naivete and fearlessness led to a number of adventures, including pulling a wounded gang leader to safety while under fire from another gang. The most interesting part for me, though, was what he learned about how ordinary people survived in that environment, and the network of relationships among gangs, building leaders, police, and politicians.

This is the best book I've read all year. I heartily recommend it.

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