“Economic and political forces no longer combat poverty—they generate poverty!" exclaim William Goldsmith and Edward Blakely in their report on the plight of American's urban poor. In this revised and updated edition of their 1992 book Separate Societies,the authors present a compelling examination of the damaging divisions that isolate poor city minority residents from the middle-class suburban majority. They pay special attention to how the needs of the permanently poor have bee...

G. K. Chesterton, the bombastic man of letters and paradoxical militant for God, died at the age of sixty-two, in his beloved country town of Beaconsfield (Disraeli had previously been its most illustrious resident), worse for wear after decades of non-stop writing, editing, and lecture-touring.If the Catholic Church makes G. K. Chesterton a saint (as an influential group of Catholics is proposing it should) the story of his enormous coffin may become rather significant.Che...

Winner of the 2017 J. Anthony Lukas PrizeShortlisted for the 2017 Hurston/Wright Foundation AwardFinalist for the 2017 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism****Longlisted for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non FictionOn an average day in America, seven children and teens will be shot dead. In Another Day in the Death of America, award-winning journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of t...

Communities around the world are entering a new era of community building.Whether improving economic conditions and reducing poverty, re-energizing citizens and social programs, reducing crime, or revitalizing a troubled neighborhood, they are engaging people from all sectors as never before to work together as equals to improve their quality of life.At the heart of this engagement are community conversations, in which common goals are embraced by a diverse array o...

A preeminent sociologist of race explains a groundbreaking new framework for understanding racial inequality, challenging both conservative and liberal dogma.In this timely and provocative contribution to the American discourse on race, William Julius Wilson applies an exciting new analytic framework to three politically fraught social problems: the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, the plight of low-skilled black males, and the fragmentation of the African Ame...

The author of Savage Inequalities, a New York Times best-seller, and Rachel and Her Children, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, tells the stories of a handful of children who have--through the love and support of their families and dedicated community leaders--not yet lost their battle with the perils of life in America's most hopeless, helpless, and dangerous neighborhoods.

In this powerful and culminating work about a group of inner-city children he has known for many years, Jonathan Kozol returns to the scene of his prize-winning books Rachel and Her Children and Amazing Grace, and to the children he has vividly portrayed, to share with us their fascinating journeys and unexpected victories as they grow into adulthood.For nearly fifty years Jonathan has pricked the conscience of his readers by laying bare the savage inequalities in...

Wilson, one of our foremost authorities on race and poverty, challenges decades of liberal and conservative pieties to look squarely at the devastating effects that joblessness has had on our urban ghettos. Marshaling a vast array of data and the personal stories of hundreds of men and women, Wilson persuasively argues that problems endemic to America's inner cities--from fatherless households to drugs and violent crime--stem directly from the disappearance of blue-collar jobs in the wake ...

Janice Perlman wrote the first in-depth account of life in the favelas, a book hailed as one of the most important works in global urban studies in the last 30 years. Now, in Favela, Perlman carries that story forward to the present. Re-interviewing many longtime favela residents whom she had first met in 1969--as well as their children and grandchildren--Perlman offers the only long-term perspective available on the favelados as they struggle for a better life. Perlman discovers ...

*Equal parts inspiration, perspiration, and information -- a book that is sure to take the Vibrant Communities story to new heights as it begins its next exciting phase.*In Canada, "poverty reduction" is no longer a "wouldn't it be nice" dream discussed after yet another failure to make a dent in an age-old problem. It's a living, breathing, exhilarating reality.Why?Because all across the country people are approaching poverty in a positive, creative, and energetic way. The...

The Working Centre in the downtown core of Kitchener, Ontario, is a widely recognized and successful model for community development. Begun from scratch in 1982, it is now a vast network of practical supports for the unemployed, the underemployed, the temporarily employed, and the homeless, populations that collectively constitute up to 30 percent of the labour market both locally and across North America.Transition to Common Work is the essential text about The Working Ce...

The long-awaited concluding volume of Pádraig Yeates' 'Dublin at War' trilogyIn A City in Civil War: Dublin 1921–1924, acclaimed historian Pádraig Yeates turns his attention to Ireland's bloody and hard-fought Civil War and its impact on the capital city and its inhabitants.The fascinating A City in Civil War tells the story of Dublin's troubled passage to independence amidst the acrimony and upheaval of the Civil War, a period in which Dublin became the capital city of an independent Iris...