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African Americans in West Baltimore and the Shadow of the State
Princeton University Press
February 2015
On Sale: February 1, 2015
440 pages
ISBN: 0691162840
EAN: 9780691162843
Kindle: B00O99SLCC
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
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 Heroβs Fight provides an intimate look at the effects of deindustrialization on the lives of Baltimoreβs 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 FernΓ‘ndez-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 pityβwhat FernΓ‘ndez-Kelly calls βambivalent benevolence.β 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. FernΓ‘ndez-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 Heroβs Fight explores how the welfare state contributes to the perpetuation of urban poverty in America.
 Media BuzzMarketplace - PRI - April 30, 2015
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