Gang Leader for a Day

A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

By: Sudhir Venkatesh

Narrated by: Reg Rogers, Sudhir Venkatesh, Stephen J. Dubner

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of the young sociologist who studied a Chicago crack-dealing gang from the inside captured the world's attention when it was first described in Freakonomics. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatest managed to gain entree into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment.

When Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago's most notorious housing projects, he was looking for people to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty. A first-year grad student hoping to impress his professors with his boldness, he never imagined that as a result of the assignment he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there.

Over the next seven years, Venkatesh got to know the neighborhood dealers, crackheads, squatters, prostitutes, pimps, activists, cops, organizers, and officials. From his privileged position of unprecedented access, he observed JT and the rest of the gang as they operated their crack-selling business, conducted PR within their community, and rose up or fell within the ranks of the gang's complex organizational structure.

In Hollywood speak, Gang Leader for a Day is The Wire meets the University of Chicago. It's a brazen and fundamentally honest view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in what is tantamount to an urban war zone. It is also the story of a complicated friendship between Sudhir and JT: two young and ambitious men a universe apart.

©2008 Sudhir Venkatesh (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

" Gang Leader for a Day is an absolutely incredible book. Sudhir Venkatesh's memoir of his years observing life in Chicago's inner city is a book unlike any other I have read, equal parts comedy and tragedy." (Steven D. Levitt, co-author, Freakonomics)

Rare and unique

Well worth listening to. This story is entertaining, heartbreaking, funny and educational. Anyone interested in the diversity of our social structure will be well rewarded by listening.

Impressive

What a terrific story. Like Clockers by Richard Price or The Wire on HBO, but it's true. The author, who has giant cojones, is a sociologist who goes native in one of the toughest public housing projects in America. Highly recommended.

An Incredible Story

Really an incredible story of deep learning. All your assumptions about gangs and gang leaders will be questioned and challenged.

entertaining and educational! loved it.

if you want to understand the relationship of the inner city residents , gangs, polices, and politics, in a vivid and first hand experience , you've got to read this book.

Brilliant Urban Ethnography

This is a fantastic book. I think the complaints about the narrator are unfounded. The chief narrator delivers the work in a fairly straightforward standard American accent that is very close to the author's own voice. (Venkatesh reads the last hour or so of the book). As for the work itself, it is the work of a wonderfully thoughtful young sociologist. I have read his first book and this is a great companion to that no less powerful, though far more academic, work. In short, this is one of the best audiobooks I've "read" in a long time. As a fellow Ph.D. graduate from the University of Chicago, I particularly appreciated his comments on Hyde Park and the overall relationship between blacks and students in the neighborhood. Highly recommended.

Love it!

I've listened to it 3 times. This is definitely one of my all time favorite stories.

Great listen

It was a great listen. The speaker is so authentic it feels as if your there with them

Fascinating from beginning to end

The best book I’ve read all year. A young sociologist grad student spends 10 years hanging out with people in the poorest housing project in Chicago, befriending the residents and the gang that controls it. He gets so tight with the gang, the top guy allows Sudhir to be gang leader for a day and one of the gang’s top officers hands over all its ledgers, including how much it pays wholesale for cocaine, how much it retails it for, how much it costs to bribe the cops, etc. Fascinating from beginning to end. My favorite part were the discussions of how the female residents navigate poverty and interactions with the male-only gangs. Grade: A+

Perfect narration.

Enlightening and Profound!

I was amazed at the level of detail this person was able to gain from being so entrenched into the lives of so many people within the gang and projects. This books has many shocking stories and events is by far one of the most interesting books I've listened to so far. This is a must "listen" book!

good book, bad narrator

really good book. really bad narrator. The story was amazing but I almost didn't get through it because of the terrible narration.