Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do about It

by Mindy Thompson Fullilove

Book Overview

Like a sequel to the prescient warnings of urbanist Jane Jacobs, Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove reveals the disturbing effects of decades of insensitive urban renewal projects on communities of color. For those whose homes and neighborhoods were bulldozed, the urban modernization projects that swept America starting in 1949 were nothing short of an assault. Vibrant city blocks?places rich in culture?were torn apart by freeways and other invasive development,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1613320191
• ISBN13: 9781613320198
• Release Date: November 2016
• Publisher: New Village Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

fabulous book

this is a great book. seriously, everyone should read this book. it's informative, smart, easy to read and incredibly interesting.

Root Shock Review

The book, "Root Shock," by Mindy Fullilove gives us great information about urban renewal and gentrification and how individuals are affected. She argues that root shock effects entire communities and that it results from urban renewal. Fullilove looks at the emotional destruction from community displacement and uses pathos (emotional appeal) for her argument. Although Fullilove does a great job of showing her readers the negative effects of community displacement, she is very one-sided. Her book does not have information about the positive effects of community displacement, but overall, I think she did a great job of explaining about community displacement and the effects it had on the individuals of the community.

Fullilove is Informative

In the book Root Shock, Fullilove addresses the negative effects that community displacement can have on people affected by urban renewal. Fullilove is opposed to community displacement as describes root shock as "the traumatic stress reaction to the destruction of all or part of one's emotional ecosystem" (Fullilove 11). This book does a good job of presenting information that would arouse opposition of community displacent. The bad thing about this book is that it is very one-sided. Little information is given on the positive effects of urban renewal. "Root Shock" is a very informative and educational book about the often overlooked topic of urban renewal and gentrification. This book is easy to read and not overly scholarly. I would suggest that anyone interested in community displacement read this book.