I just got a request today for books on gentrification. I have a few suggestions that I've actually read, and then a couple that I just know about and that look good to me. Here's today's theme song from Living Colour: "Open Letter to a Landlord"
Book recs:
Neil Smith, The New Urban Frontier: Gentification and the Revanchist City (Routledge, 1996). This is really the classic study. If you are planning to read just one, here's my top pick. I've also taught a chapter from this book and students liked it. . It's academic, but not too intense. Neil Smith was a remarkable scholar activist and a major influence on a whole generation of urban geographers. He died much too young about three years ago.
Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles.. Like Smith's, this one is a classic that you'll probably see in a lot of people's footnotes. I read this my first year in graduate school and it's stayed with me since then. The book is a great-big people's history of Los Angeles, so gentrification is one part of a bigger story.
Suleiman Osman, The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search For Authenticity in Postwar New York. I have not read this one, but it's been on my to-read list since I read a review.
Christina Hanhardt, Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence. This book is an important contribution to thinking about intersections of Gay history and responding to anti-Gay violence with the crisis in urban housing, and policing. Not an easy story to tell, but an important one.
Fiction and memoir:
Nathan McCall, Them, Washington Square Press, 2007. This is a fictional account of gentrification in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta. I read it my first year here in ATL and it is great for providing a background on the history of ITP transformation. It's amazing how rapid the transition has been. At times I found the novel to be a bit heavy-handed, but it's still a good read. I actually listened to it as an audiobook.
Lee Stringer, Grand Central Winter is not exactly about gentrfication, but the gentrification of the area around Grand Central Terminal and the impact on homeless people living there is a significant part of this story.
This is a NY-centric list because of my own personal history, but if anyone reading has good recommendations for books on gentrification in the South, please add them in the comments.
Another video for the outro. Here's Draze from Seattle: "The Hood 'Aint the Same"
Neil Smith, The New Urban Frontier: Gentification and the Revanchist City (Routledge, 1996). This is really the classic study. If you are planning to read just one, here's my top pick. I've also taught a chapter from this book and students liked it. . It's academic, but not too intense. Neil Smith was a remarkable scholar activist and a major influence on a whole generation of urban geographers. He died much too young about three years ago.
Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles.. Like Smith's, this one is a classic that you'll probably see in a lot of people's footnotes. I read this my first year in graduate school and it's stayed with me since then. The book is a great-big people's history of Los Angeles, so gentrification is one part of a bigger story.
Suleiman Osman, The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search For Authenticity in Postwar New York. I have not read this one, but it's been on my to-read list since I read a review.
Christina Hanhardt, Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence. This book is an important contribution to thinking about intersections of Gay history and responding to anti-Gay violence with the crisis in urban housing, and policing. Not an easy story to tell, but an important one.
Fiction and memoir:
Nathan McCall, Them, Washington Square Press, 2007. This is a fictional account of gentrification in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta. I read it my first year here in ATL and it is great for providing a background on the history of ITP transformation. It's amazing how rapid the transition has been. At times I found the novel to be a bit heavy-handed, but it's still a good read. I actually listened to it as an audiobook.
Lee Stringer, Grand Central Winter is not exactly about gentrfication, but the gentrification of the area around Grand Central Terminal and the impact on homeless people living there is a significant part of this story.
This is a NY-centric list because of my own personal history, but if anyone reading has good recommendations for books on gentrification in the South, please add them in the comments.
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