Street Wars: Gangs and the Future of Violence
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Book Overview
A gripping and honest account of the culture of gangs, Street Wars is essential reading for anyone concerned about cities, violence, and the future of urban youth. Though never officially acknowledged, over 25,000 young people have died in America's gang wars since 1980. In cities across America, members of the Crips, Bloods, Mara Salvatrucha, 18th Street, Latin Kings, Blackstone Rangers, and Gangster Disciples are like traumatized war veterans with no way home. Drawn from ten years spent as an activist and public official working to understand and prevent gang violence in Los Angeles, Street Wars is Tom Hayden's searing indictment of the neoconservative politics of law and order that dominate current policy and suffocate inner-city youth. Weaving together cutting analysis and numerous firsthand stories from gang leaders, Hayden shows how the prison industrial complex reinforces gang identity through humiliation and punishment, and reveals how globalization has created a force of unemployable men and women around the world who are defined as incorrigible, outside law and community. The final chapters advocate an internal peace process based on ideas of the New Deal to address the devastation of America's urban youth.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:1565848764
ISBN13:9781565848764
Release Date:May 2004
Publisher:New Press
Length:430 Pages
Weight:1.55 lbs.
Dimensions:1.6" x 6.4" x 8.0"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Street Wars: Gangs and the Future of Violence
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Very liberal writting on the topic of Street Gangs. However, there are many valid points indicated in the failure of the government to corral the problem early.
A Remarkable Piece of Empathy
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
As a resident, educator, and community activist in Watts I have come to know the problems this book addresses intimately. Tom Hayden is an outsider to all of this, as is most of the book's audience, but you would never know it from the positions he takes. He has done us the enormous service of having listened deeply to people who many are afraid to even look in the eye. And he adds to this his own insights as a policymaker and insider to the political world that is intimately, if often destructively, connected to the social fabric from which gangs arise. A better, more insightful analysis of gangs could come only from putting down your books, turning off your computer, and working face to face with gang members yourself.
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