Black on the Block

Abstract

Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Mary, Pattillo. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Sometime last year, as I recall, the Chicago Tribune featured an article about the various pieces of significant social research that had their origins on the South Side of Chicago. It was a very thoughtful and informative article, reviewing the seminal contributions of, among others, St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton (1970), James Grossman (1991), and William Julius Wilson (1987). At the time I thought it astonishing to realize that this part of Chicago has given birth to so much important sociological/urban research: it is testimony to the skills and abilities of the various researchers, but as well to how heavily U.S. social science research has been focused on this part of Chicago. The Chicago School of Sociology, however different it is today from its origins in the writings and work of its founders for example, Robert Park, Louis Wirth, and Ernest Burgess remains very much alive and well. Mary Pattillo's latest book on Chicago, Black on the Block, represents yet another important contribution that builds on these foundations. Examining the processes of gentrification and revitalization in the North Kenwood-Oakland (NKO) area, she provides an insightful analysis of how the people and the neighborhood changed and often in unexpected and unanticipated ways. Whatever the good sentiments and tough policies behind gentrification, it is a process that takes on a life of its own, leading to many material improvements in an area, but often at the expense of harming the lives of those people it is designed to help. Pattillo's book is not simply an imaginative sociological analysis of gentrification in a black neighborhood, it also tells how this part of Chicago has changed from its origins in the late nineteenth century as an exclusively white wealthy area to the present day, and it does so in a concise and intelligent manner. Hence, anyone who wishes a sense of the history of the NKO neighborhood, and also of the role of key institutional actors, such as the University of Chicago, can benefit from reading this book. There are a number of lessons that the book intends to teach its readers.