A Haven and a Hell

[An] informative sociohistorical analysis . . . For readers of urban history and black history, this is an excellent look at the ghetto’s multifaceted place in American history. * Publishers Weekly * Immensely valuable. -- Prentiss A. Dantzler, Georgia State University * Journal of Urban Affairs * A critical read at a time when gentrification is viewed as threatening the black identity of many urban neighborhoods, this book offers a rich and nuanced history of the ghetto’s role in black American life from the late nineteenth century to the present. Resisting a simple characterization, Freeman shows that while the ghetto has sometimes served as an instrument of subjugation and institutional neglect, it has also offered a refuge that has helped to nurture black culture, institutions, and ideas. -- Ingrid Gould Ellen, coeditor of <i>The Dream Revisited: Contemporary Debates About Housing, Segregation, and Opportunity</i> Through rigorous sociohistorical analysis, Lance Freeman provides insight into how black ghettos developed and then changed over time, giving readers a good sense of the complicated trajectory of 'the ghetto' in America. A Haven and a Hell is a highly accessible and necessary book for a broader and richer understanding of urban black America. -- Marcus Anthony Hunter, coauthor of <i>Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life</i> With diligent care, Lance Freeman weighs the hurts and capacities of ghetto life in the United States. In a field grown thick with pronouncement, his steadfast empirical commitment and reasoned analyses correct past misperceptions and open new vistas. -- Harvey Molotch, coauthor of <i>Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place</i> In A Haven and a Hell, Lance Freeman seeks to amplify the relationship between 'the ghetto' as a place, policy, and idea and as a black experience, source of resistance, and community. Using multiple places and narratives, this book renders 'the ghetto' as not only multifaceted but also critical to understanding the contemporary conditions of urban black America. -- John Hipp, University of California, Irvine Freeman’s rich historical account illustrates how pernicious processes of racial domination and exclusion created predominantly Black neighborhoods in Northern U.S. cities. Yet he also shows how these same processes created the conditions of possibility for autonomous Black social institutions and collective identities. Freeman seamlessly combines statistical and archival data with the voices of Black artists, activists, intellectuals, and business and political leaders across nearly 150 of U.S. history for an account that is at once soaring and surprisingly intimate. -- Adam Reich, co-author of <i>Working for Respect: Community and Conflict at Walmart</i> For those wholly unfamiliar with the history of the formation of the African-American ghetto, this book is an essential read. Its prosaic style makes it very reader friendly. As such, its biggest draw may be for undergraduate students and others who have little understanding of the historical and social conditions that gave rise to what appear today as blighted urban spaces. * American Journal of Sociology * Freeman adds necessary perspective to our understanding of the role of the ghetto in American life. * Contemporary Sociology * An eloquently written and captivating book. * Journal of Planning Education and Research *