Awards
- Joint winner of C. Wright Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems 2015
Overview
Baltimore was once a vibrant manufacturing town, but today, with factory closings and steady job loss since the 1970s, it is home to some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in America. The Hero's Fight provides an intimate look at the effects of deindustrialization on the lives of Baltimore's urban poor, and sheds critical light on the unintended consequences of welfare policy on our most vulnerable communities. Drawing on her own uniquely immersive brand of fieldwork, conducted over the course of a decade in the neighborhoods of West Baltimore, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly tells the stories of people like D. B. Wilson, Big Floyd, Towanda, and others whom the American welfare state treats with a mixture of contempt and pity--what Fernandez-Kelly calls ""ambivalent benevolence."" She shows how growing up poor in the richest nation in the world involves daily interactions with agents of the state, an experience that differs significantly from that of more affluent populations. While ordinary Americans are treated as citizens and consumers, deprived and racially segregated populations are seen as objects of surveillance, containment, and punishment.Fernandez-Kelly provides new insights into such topics as globalization and its effects on industrial decline and employment, the changing meanings of masculinity and femininity among the poor, social and cultural capital in poor neighborhoods, and the unique roles played by religion and entrepreneurship in destitute communities. Blending compelling portraits with in-depth scholarly analysis, The Hero's Fight explores how the welfare state contributes to the perpetuation of urban poverty in America.
Full Product Details
Author: Patricia Fernández-Kelly
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 3.00cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.709kg
ISBN: 9780691162843
ISBN 10: 0691162840
Pages: 440
Publication Date: 01 February 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Replaced By: 9781400883561
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.
Language: English
Reviews
[T]his thought-provoking book--and the comprehensive research behind it--could, if heeded, help alleviate some of society's most intractable problems. --Publishers Weekly
[T]his thought-provoking book--and the comprehensive research behind it--could, if heeded, help alleviate some of society's most intractable problems. --Publishers Weekly [A] compelling and nuanced examination of the intersections of race, gender, and poverty... The author makes a significant theoretical contribution to the poverty literature that moves beyond the bifurcated arguments of blaming the poor, or blaming the state for restricting opportunities to the poor. --Choice
Author Information
Patricia Fernndez-Kelly is senior lecturer in sociology at Princeton University. Her books include For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier. She coproduced the Emmy Awardwinning documentary The Global Assembly Line.
