Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor

Book Description

Listen to a short interview with Sudhir Venkatesh
Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane

In this revelatory book, Sudhir Venkatesh takes us into Maquis Park, a poor black neighborhood on Chicago's Southside, to explore the desperate, dangerous, and remarkable ways in which a community survives. We find there an entire world of unregulated, unreported, and untaxed work, a system of living off the books that is daily life in the ghetto. From women who clean houses and prepare lunches for the local hospital to small-scale entrepreneurs like the mechanic who works in an alley; from the preacher who provides mediation services to the salon owner who rents her store out for gambling parties; and from street vendors hawking socks and incense to the drug dealing and extortion of the local gang, we come to see how these activities form the backbone of the ghetto economy.

What emerges are the innumerable ways that these men and women, immersed in their shadowy economic pursuits, are connected to and reliant upon one another. The underground economy, as Venkatesh's subtle storytelling reveals, functions as an intricate web, and in the strength of its strands lie the fates of many Maquis Park residents. The result is a dramatic narrative of individuals at work, and a rich portrait of a community. But while excavating the efforts of men and women to generate a basic livelihood for themselves and their families, Off the Books offers a devastating critique of the entrenched poverty that we so often ignore in America, and reveals how the underground economy is an inevitable response to the ghetto's appalling isolation from the rest of the country.

Customer Reviews:

Sociology for the masses.......2007-08-16

Off The Books is a fine, readable description of one neighborhood in the south side if Chicago. The concentration is on the economic life of the adults, but of course ends up covering social, political, and legal aspects of the residents. There's enough gritty detail to keep up the reader's voyeuristic interest in "the baddest part of town", and enough highfalutin scholarly language to maintain academic respectability.

The author has consciously used his ethnicity, neither white nor Black, to learn the deals, the arrangements, the profits and losses of participants in the underground economy of his chosen subject area. It's an interesting subject, honorably researched and respectably presented. Minus two stars for dragging things out, and sloppy English. Definitely recommended if this is your field. Might be good for a general reader.

Interesting.......2007-07-09

This book is an easy read and very informative. A lot of things you know already if you even grew up close to a city with an urban center, and you can relate this to a lot of cities other than Chicago. The author is a little long winded, but you'll understand why when you read the book.

A tedious 382 pages.......2007-07-07

Mr. Venkatesh obviously immersed himself in the daily life of the urban poor, and certainly has an interesting five page journal article here, unfortunately he also has an addional382 pages of tedious, repetitive anecdotes from his time interviewing the urban poor. After reading a story about someone illegally repairing a car in an alley for the 100th time (probably not an exaggeration) you start to feel like you are not really getting the full scope of the story.

The limited use of any facts or survey data make this book less useful than it could have been if it were not so focused on anecdotes with little contextual data.

The Author Needs to Prioritize.......2007-05-29

Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh has the potencial for a really good book here, but he mucks it up by switching back and forth between being an objective social scientist reporting his findings and a sympathetic visitor to the urban American slum. His digressions into obscure and arcane points of academic theory interrupt the narrative flow and make the book a tedious read at times.

With that minor quibble stated however, Off the Books is a very enlightening survey of the seemingly intractable problems facing the population of America's ghettos. I highly recommend it to the people who promote laissez-faire economic policies as a cure-all for urban social pathologies.

Fantastic.......2007-05-04

I thought Off the Books was fascinating and well written. I've recommended it to many people.

China as a World Factory (Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia)

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China as a World Factory (Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia)
Kevin Zhang
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415701260

Book Description

Few countries have integrated into the world economy as fast or as dramatically as China has since 1978. The worlds most populous country is emerging as a world workshop and export machine: a visit to a department store in any country will unearth a plethora of goods manufactured in the Peoples Republic. China is now the worlds fourth largest exporting nation. In this important book, Kevin Zhang brings together an international team of contributors to analyze this development process. Taking a thematic approach, the book covers:

* manufacturing exports and the world workshop
* foreign capital and chinas industrial development
* challenges from the WTO and openness.

This topical analysis will be an excellent resource for postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of Asian and Chinese studies, export studies, and economics.

The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy

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The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy
Randolf G. S. Cooper
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Renaissance | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0521824443

Book Description

The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns of 1803 represented the last serious indigenous obstacle to the formation of the British Raj. This study examines Maratha military culture through a battle-by-battle analysis of the campaigns. Randolf Cooper challenges the ethnocentric assumptions that associate Western political ascendancy with "The Military Revolution" and argues that the real contest for India was the struggle to control the South Asian military economy, rather than a single decisive military battle. Victory depended more on economics and intelligence than on superiority in discipline, drill and technology.

Tribes: How Race, Religion, and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy

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Globalization and Tribes - Interesting Relationship
there is a dark side of strategizing ethnic groups
A great book on the dynamic link between culture and wealth
A Cosmopolitan Perspective on Business and Culture

Tribes: How Race, Religion, and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy
Joel Kotkin
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape
Who Prospers?: How Cultural Values Shape Economic and Political Success
The City: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles)
The Emergence of the Church: Context, Growth, Leadership & Worship
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

ASIN: 0679412824
Release Date: 1992-12-29

Book Description

This explosive and controversial examination of business, history, and ethnicity shows how "global tribes" have shaped the world's economy in the past--and how they will dominate its future.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

Globalization and Tribes - Interesting Relationship.......2007-03-08

This is a great book for those who have always wondered why there are Chinese restaurants all over the world and the presence of synagogues in even the most odd of places. Describes the relationships of cultural groups such as the Chinese, Jews, Indians, Arabs, etc. across the globe and how they work together and rely on one another even though they are spread all over the planet.

there is a dark side of strategizing ethnic groups.......2004-01-01

There is a dark side of disproportionate wealth and it's explored in depth in "World on Fire" by Amy Chua. I read there that in the Philippines the ethnic Chinese make up one percent of the population, but control seventy percent of the wealth. One danger is that there can be an ethnic cleansing as another reviewer mentioned. Another danger is destroying democracy, since the economically dominant minority wouldn't tolerate it after reaching such an extreme disparity of wealth. I hope USA doesn't end up like the Philippines.

A great book on the dynamic link between culture and wealth.......2001-12-06

This is a great book that has a keen and insightful look into how certain cultures and ethnic groups rise to prominence in a global economy. The author focuses on five "Tribes": the Jews, the British, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Indians. Kotkin is always fair, objective, and intelligent when it comes to explaining how and why these groups have developed the "cultural capital" to attain disproportionate economic success.

Kotkin lays out his work in an excellent chronological manner, which strongly demonstrates the dynamic nature on how these groups rose economically over the course of history and time. He also notes differences between the groups and some problems within them, such as pointing out the more centralized and "engineered" rise of the Japanese "Tribe", or the decline of the British work ethic.

Kotkin then neatly follows these 5 groups with a discussion on what he perceives as "future Tribes" rising in economic success and wealth, such as Mormons and Palestinians (who are by far the most educated, entrepreneurial, and enterprising people in the Arab world; just look at the pre-1991 Kuwaiti economy). This dynamist and forward-looking perspective cements Kotkins narrative being very progressive and non-prejudiced.

Although, as mentioned, Kotkin is extremely fair and objective, it is important to point out that he does come from a certain perspective, namely a kind of neoliberal and neolibertarian outlook that places a strong emphasis on cultural dynamism (i.e., cultures as organic and evolving, rather than having determined, static boundaries). I happen to greatly agree with this perspective, which is probably why I personally like the book so much.

If there is one minor shortcoming of this book, it would be that Kotkin did not fully explore the dark side of disproportionate economic success in an ethnic group. There is the external dark side, namely the envy, jealousy, oppression, and even genocide faced by economically successful cultural groups, especially when they are a politically weak minority. History is replete with these stories, whether they be Indians in East Africa, Chinese in Southeast Asia, or Jews in Europe. There is also the internal dark side, whereby the economic success in an ethnic group may lead to a suffocation of individual lifestyle and cultural choices (i.e., pressure to conform) and a condescending if not bigoted view of other cultures, especially the majority cultures in ones they're living. These themes are further explored in several books by conservative author Thomas Sowell.

Overall, however, the book is a wonderful primer on this "ethno-economic" phenomenon. Any one who has ever asked the question "Why are all the nail salons 'controlled' by Vietnamese?" must read this book.

A Cosmopolitan Perspective on Business and Culture.......1998-05-07

"Tribes", by Joel Kotkin (1992 Random House) This book is necessary reading for anyone interested in learning in depth about the increasingly multicultural aspects of modern business, leadership and education. Kotkin shares a thorough and thoroughly researched understanding of the origins and growth of "Global Tribes". He discusses the history and economic impact of the diaspora cultures of the Jews, Japanese, Chinese, Indian and British.

Where many futurist authors talk about a "Post-Modern era", Kotkin frames the future as "Post Cold-War". He states that increasingly ethnic identities will determine the primary sphere of social and economic identity, and not current political identities. In the Epilogue he talks about Cosmopolis, a world dominated by cosmopolitan centers with multiethnic identities, rather than a world dominated by political identities. He ties this idea of the economic power and multicultural complexity of future cosmopolitan cities to the rise and eventual domination of great cosmopolitan cities of the past such as Alexandria, Canton, London, Rome, and others. While this is his conclusion, the bulk of the book is a very cosmopolitan discussion of the economic and social impact of the growth of five Global Tribes, and the changes that have, and will, come with them. Each culture has in common that they are largely disconnected from the culture they find themselves in, have a strong ethnic identity "a vocation of uniqueness", a strong work ethic, and a theology that allows them to work pragmatically in the business community. Of particular interest was his discussion about the rise, near decline, and limitations of the Japanese "diaspora by design". His discussion is neither prejudiced nor chauvinist, but centered on a thorough understanding of Japanese history and the perspective. For that reason alone, the book is worth reading. Other minor players in the Cosmopolis, such as Jains and Mormons, are also discusse! d. It is refreshing to read a well-researched book on global economic and political patterns that is not coloured by an American centered understanding of world developments. If one is going to consider business or leadership interactions outside of an Anglo-American perspective, there is much to think about here.

Cities in a World Economy (Sociology for a New Century Series)
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Good for general information on a new economic order

Cities in a World Economy (Sociology for a New Century Series)
Saskia Sassen
Manufacturer: Pine Forge Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.

Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place

Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

Global Networks, Linked Cities

Spaces of Global Capitalism: A Theory of Uneven Geographical Development

ASIN: 1412936802

Book Description

The Third Edition of Cities in a World Economy shows how certain characteristics of our turn-of-the-millennium flows of money, information, and people have led to the emergence of a new social formation: global cities. These developments give new meaning to such fixtures of urban sociology as the centrality of place and the importance of geography in our social world.

Key Features:

Offers a multidisciplinary perspective: This book features a cross-disciplinary approach to Urban Sociology using global examples. With both depth and clarity, this book examines the impact of global processes on the social structure of cities helping students increase their world awareness. In addition, the book strikes the perfect balance between maintaining academic rigor and employing new and innovative concepts.
Includes a new chapter: The new chapter on Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits discusses the highly gendered and unequal nature of the global city and how it forces the underprivileged to live a dangerous and unpredictable life on global survival circuits.
Incorporates the most recent data: This new edition updates nearly every piece of data with the most recent facts and figures available. In addition, this book introduces new concepts for understanding contemporary urban sociology.

Intended Audience:

This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Sociology. It can also be used in courses such as Urban Studies, World Cities, Regional Studies, Urban Development and Planning, and Regional Development in the departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and Geography.

Customer Reviews:

Good for general information on a new economic order.......1999-06-21

I've read the book due to an examination about "the new city structure - contemporary geography" and it's quite good, she has a global wiew of the new city-status and its new users, the less and less importance the homless has for the city governament and the new power of the corporation, all in all a good compendium if you need to improve your knoledge about the matter.

Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens

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Unique observations of life as an undocumented worker
Coyotes: a borderlands journey by a journalist & now professor
An often unseen vantage point
Outstanding book
Outstanding glimpse into the lives of undocumented Mexicans

Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens
Ted Conover
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Enrique's Journey
Dead in Their Tracks: Crossing America's Desert Borderlands
Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border
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ASIN: 0394755189
Release Date: 1987-08-12

Customer Reviews:

Unique observations of life as an undocumented worker.......2007-03-21

This is one of a handful of books recently written where the author joins a group of undocumented workers crossing the border in attempt to gain employment in the United States. The interesting twist here is that the author, though apparently fluent in Spanish, is white. He also attempts to work in the fields himself, as opposed to simply observing and writing about the work of others. This leads to a number of unique experiences and observations on race relations that are rarely discussed in this context. It also allows the reader to better understand what life is like for many undocumented workers in this country. Kudos to Ted Conover for making a sincere effort to better understand the lives of those that would not otherwise be recorded.

Coyotes: a borderlands journey by a journalist & now professor.......2007-01-10

This story rivets the reader to the writer's acceptance (guarded) by poor Hispanics as he seeks to be an Imbed with them when they cross the border at a couple of different sites. There was the interception by Mexican border police and their payoff; then life beyond the border on the way to nearby farms serviced by Coyotes (travel guides and job finders) and potato fields of Idaho (serviced by the same dependable families year after year).
It gives many glimpses of that struggle to pass on a better life to the kids.

The writer may influence many who would become investigative reporters.

An often unseen vantage point.......2006-09-30

This is an important book, particularly in today's charged political climate. It is very easy to deal in absolutes when one deals with abstract ideas, but what Conover does well, is to humanize those ideas. While many speak of illegal imigration, Conover speaks of specific imigrants. He shares their perspectives,not condemning them, not glorifying them, but merely letting them tell their stories.

Aditionally Conover is remarkable for the amount of energy he put into getting to know his subject. Half of the worth of the book is the story of the migrants, the other half certainly is Conover's own story.

Outstanding book.......2006-08-31

I live in Southern California, and work with and around illegal aliens (or undocumented workers) on a daily basis. This is one of the best works written by an Anglo-American on the subject I have read. Conover took the time to really get to know these people, and not just from an investigative point of view. He worked the fields with these men, lived as they did and currently do, and even took a beating for it. Actually knowing and physically feeling what these migrants do gives him credibility far beyond other reporters/journalists who ask only questions, and feel that they are "in depth" after spending a week with their "subjects". Conover makes his experience personal, and the reader feels like this is a story told over dinner. The next time you are at the grocery store, after reading this book, you'll have a greater appreciation for the bag of oranges you are buying, and the story behind them.

Outstanding glimpse into the lives of undocumented Mexicans.......2006-06-26

Written all the way back in the mid-1980s, long before all the heated rhetoric about illegal immigration going on in the US today, this book has turned out to be amazingly prescient. I feel like I would have had a much better understanding of this subject (not to mention appreciation of the people involved) had I discovered it a long time ago, but I suppose late is better than never.

Ted Conover did what I don't imagine very many other Americans would have the courage to do: Cross illegally from Mexico into the US with Mexicans doing the same thing. In doing so, he gives readers incredible insight into what compels some Mexicans to make that journey (i.e what life is like where they come from), what the journey is like, and what awaits them on this side of the border. I found myself exceedingly grateful for having been born American and simply in awe of the Mexicans who live such vastly disparate lives from their privileged neighbors to the north.

Conover simply relates his experiences to readers without the kind of ideological commentary or other editorializing that can get in the way of the facts surrounding the contentious issues involved. Coyotes is a well-written, touching, informative, and inspiring book that should be required reading for all Americans before they open their mouths about illegal immigration.

Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)

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Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
Daniel N. Posner
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

ASIN: 0521541794

Book Description

Presenting a theory to explain how politics revolves around one axis of social cleavage instead of another, Daniel Posner examines Zambia, where people identify themselves either as members of one of the country's seventy-three tribes or as members of one of its four principal language groups. Drawing on a simple model of identity choice, Posner demonstrates that the answer depends on whether the country is operating under single-party or multi-party rule, thus revealing how formal institutional rules determine the social cleavages that matter.

Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

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Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
Mark R. Beissinger
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
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ASIN: 052100148X

Book Description

This study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987--the disintegration of the Soviet state--became the seemingly inevitable by 1991. It provides an original interpretation of not only the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenon of nationalism more generally. Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, Beissinger utilizes extensive event data and detailed case studies from across the U.S.S.R. during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship between pre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the massive nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Download Description

This study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987 - the disintegration of the Soviet state - became the seemingly inevitable by 1991, providing an original interpretation not only of the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenon of nationalism more generally. Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, Beissinger utilizes data and case studies from across the USSR during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship between pre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Beissinger demonstrates, the 'tidal' context of nationalism - i.e., the transnational influence of one nationalism upon another - is critical to an explanation of the success and failure of particular nationalisms, why some nationalisms turn violent, and how a crescendo of events can overwhelm states, periodically evoking large-scale structural change in the character of the state system.

Blue Collar Bayou: Louisiana Cajuns in the New Economy of Ethnicity

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Blue Collar Bayou: Louisiana Cajuns in the New Economy of Ethnicity
Jacques M. Henry , and Carl L. Bankston
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0275978176

Book Description

Although the French language and the traditional rural way of life are disappearing among Louisiana Cajuns, identification with Cajun ethnicity is flourishing. Henry and Bankston draw on historical documents, ethnographic observations and interviews, and statistical sources to investigate and explain this phenomenon. They argue that while Cajun ethnicity developed from and consisted of the French-speaking, rural poor of the region, it has been transformed, during the 20th century, into a regional class with common interests and outlooks. A substantial minority of Cajuns have risen out of the blue collar niche and into the middle class, creating more complicated problems of adjustment, role redefinition, and the changing nature of relationships with friends and family who remain part of the working class. The authors detail and describe the way the working class Cajun majority and the white collar Cajun minority draw on images and ideas from a reconstructed past to make sense of their present conditions and changes in their community. This comprehensive structural analysis of Cajun ethnicity suggests a new emphasis on structural conditions in understanding ethnic phenomena and introduces the concept of an "economy of ethnicity." In analyzing and exploring the creation and maintenance of Cajun ethnicity, Henry and Bankston also point toward a general theory of contemporary ethnic groups. Why, for instance, have more and more people claimed to be of Native American ancestry? How did the population of people calling themselves Irish soar over the course of a very brief period of time? Arguing that as the cultural basis of difference subsides, ethnic claims increase, and that such claims are based on a number of factors including socioeconomic and regional concerns, the authors contend that the same factors at play in the maintenance of the Cajun ethnicity are also at play in other ethnic communities and subcultures within the United States. They conclude that in claiming an ethnic identity, group members rework ideas of history and ancestry in order to apply these ideas to modern life.

Accommodation Without Assimilation: Sikh Immigrants in an American High School (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

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Scholarly and well-written
Scholarly and well-written

Accommodation Without Assimilation: Sikh Immigrants in an American High School (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)
Margaret A. Gibson
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring
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ASIN: 0801495032

Customer Reviews:

Scholarly and well-written.......2000-06-14

This book deals with an important subject -- the interaction between a distinctive immigrant group and the surrounding community; does so in a scholarly and thorough way; and yet is a pleasure to read. I have no background in sociology but I was fascinated by this research, which is presented in an understandable and engaging way.

The only caution I'd suggest to other readers is that one should be careful about extrapolating these findings about Sikh farmers in rural California to the larger Indian-American community. The subjects described here are clearly different from many (perhaps most) other Indian-Americans -- in religion, dress, social customs, occupation, education and economic class; so different in fact that I think one should be hesitant about reaching any conclusions about the larger community just from this book. As an Indian-American who grew up and attended high school in suburban New Jersey, I can testify that my own experience was far different from the one described here.

Scholarly and well-written.......2000-06-14

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