Overview

Part true crime, part work of urban sociology, Land of Opportunity is a meticulously researched account of the rise and fall of the Chambers brothers, who ran a multi-million-dollar crack cocaine operation in Detroit in the 1980s. Descended from Arkansas sharecroppers, BJ, Larry, and Willie Chambers moved to Detroit seeking economic opportunity, and built a successful drug empire by applying strict business principles to their trade; their business grossed an estimated $55 million annually until the brothers were sent to prison in 1989. Reading the Chambers brothers in the context of the fall of the Detroit auto-industry and its impact on the city’s economy and residents, Land of Opportunity demonstrates how for the Chambers brothers, crack dealing was a rational career choice; and through the Chambers brothers’ story, Adler provides bottom-up history of late Second Great Migration, deindustrialization, the War on Drugs, and crack era in both Detroit and the United States.

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9780472038633

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Reviews

Relying on countless interviews [. . .] including interviews with the jailed brothers, William M. Adler offers not only an excellent chronicle of the rags-to-riches-to-prison-garb story of these particular entrepreneurs but also a cogent explanation of the social and economic conditions in this country that make dealing drugs an attractive career choice. --Chicago Tribune-- Chicago Tribune With graceful restraint, Adler shows us that the war on drugs is not a war of the county against those who would bring it down by rejecting its values and grasping at easy money. It is a war of a country against itself, against its history of racism, against its own values of materialism and lack of concern for all its people. --The Washington Post-- The Washington Post

“With graceful restraint, Adler shows us that the war on drugs is not a war of the county against those who would bring it down by rejecting its values and grasping at easy money. It is a war of a country against itself, against its history of racism, against its own values of materialism and lack of concern for all its people. “ —The Washington Post * The Washington Post * “Relying on countless interviews [. . .] including interviews with the jailed brothers, William M. Adler offers not only an excellent chronicle of the rags-to-riches-to-prison-garb story of these particular entrepreneurs but also a cogent explanation of the social and economic conditions in this country that make dealing drugs an attractive career choice.” —Chicago Tribune * Chicago Tribune * ""It’s easy to see how Land of Opportunity and Adler’s cinematic stories would later be included in a television documentary—he’s just that good."" —Herb Boyd, Michigan Historical Review -- Herb Boyd - Author, Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination * Michigan Historical Review * ""Land of Opportunity is a model of narrative nonfiction. While much of the history of the Reconstruction Era, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights Movement, and urban crisis will be familiar to historians, Adler is adept at weaving history with the present and illuminating its echoes."" --Journal of African American History * Journal of African American History *

It's easy to see how Land of Opportunity and Adler's cinematic stories would later be included in a television documentary--he's just that good. --Herb Boyd, Michigan Historical Review--Herb Boyd - Author, Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination Michigan Historical Review Relying on countless interviews [. . .] including interviews with the jailed brothers, William M. Adler offers not only an excellent chronicle of the rags-to-riches-to-prison-garb story of these particular entrepreneurs but also a cogent explanation of the social and economic conditions in this country that make dealing drugs an attractive career choice. --Chicago Tribune-- Chicago Tribune With graceful restraint, Adler shows us that the war on drugs is not a war of the county against those who would bring it down by rejecting its values and grasping at easy money. It is a war of a country against itself, against its history of racism, against its own values of materialism and lack of concern for all its people. --The Washington Post-- The Washington Post

With graceful restraint, Adler shows us that the war on drugs is not a war of the county against those who would bring it down by rejecting its values and grasping at easy money. It is a war of a country against itself, against its history of racism, against its own values of materialism and lack of concern for all its people. - The Washington Post Relying on countless interviews [. . .] including interviews with the jailed brothers, William M. Adler offers not only an excellent chronicle of the rags-to-riches-to-prison-garb story of these particular entrepreneurs but also a cogent explanation of the social and economic conditions in this country that make dealing drugs an attractive career choice. - Chicago Tribune

Author Information

William M. Adler is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and the Texas Observer. In addition to Land of Opportunity, he has written two other books of narrative nonfiction: Mollie’s Job, which follows the flight of a single factory job from the US to Mexico over the course of fifty years; and The Man Who Never Died, a biography of the labor martyr Joe Hill.

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