House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City

by Michael Downs

It was a crumbling city, like so many others. But in Hartford five gifted young men, who met as high school athletes, promised their lives to the hometown that shaped them even as it was coming apart. They intended to go far. They would, they pledged, bring back college degrees and commit themselves to living and working in Hartford. This is the story of those five men and how they kept, or broke, that promise--told by a writer whose own family history...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803260121
• ISBN13: 9780803260122
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

thoughtful & interesting

Makes a person think about education, urban planning and the cost of suberbia.

A Tale Well Told

Michael Downs has done a wonderful job of weaving in his personal life with a story of hopes and dreams--some realized and some not. At times, his prose is poetic. The story of the virtual collapse of huge chunks of Hartford is a story that has played out in major cities across America. This story, extremely well-documented and reported, is uniquely and poignantly told.