Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It

This book gives much more of an appreciation for the extreme damage done to the black culture by urban renewal, as well as the general loss of the exciting urbanity the city could still have today. I found the personal interest stories were a bit too drawn out and the subject of the book jumped around a lot. However, for anyone interested in urban studies/African-American studies - or...more

This book gives much more of an appreciation for the extreme damage done to the black culture by urban renewal, as well as the general loss of the exciting urbanity the city could still have today. I found the personal interest stories were a bit too drawn out and the subject of the book jumped around a lot. However, for anyone interested in urban studies/African-American studies - or anyone interested in finding out the incredible guilt that white people should feel for destroying the rich black culture and their communities, subjecting them to poor conditions and denying them equal rights for decades conspicuously, and then having the gall to blame it all on them - you should read this book. I don't know what theory the reviewer Aaron is referring too, but this has almost nothing to do with gentrification. Urban renewal ≠ gentrification.   hide