The South Side: The Racial Transformation of an American Neighborhood

by Louis Rosen

Book Overview

A powerful and moving story of the racial transformation of an American neighborhood, told in memoir and oral narrative. "It deserves to become a classic....This text needs to be understood and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566631904
• ISBN13: 9781566631907
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

The South Side

Neighborhoods are created by groups of individuals, usually of the same ethnic background. How a group grows internally, is because of there culture, religion, and political beliefs. When their (groups) stronghold, or sacred ground is challenged, fear then takes over. The first few, new black families that moved into the author's neighborhood, were well educated, and valued their new property, as well as anybody that were currently living there. It might have been hard for some residents to accept, a black family moving in, but it was twice as hard for that family, to accept what racial bigotry that awaits them. Sacrifices must be made, in order to balance out. The rich help the poor, the strong helps the weak, the believers help the non-belivers. When you are born into a vicious cycle, that cycle must be broken. Education is the key.

Bringing Back Memories

Like the author, I too attended Warren Elementary and Bower High School and oh, the memories his book brings back! My parents "held out" until the summer of 1969, when they moved to San Diego. Their move greatly affected my brother, who was entering his senior year at Bowen. I was in college at the time and noticed the change much less since I was so anxious to get away from home. The irony is that home got away from me! Even if my family hadn't moved to California, I couldn't really return to the Chicago I knew and loved because it doesn't exist for me -- or for any of us who grew up white and Jewish on the South Side -- anymore. I recall the disappointment my parents felt when "Rabbi Fineman" left our synagogue. I now understand why. I believe that by putting his career before his congregation's welfare, he missed the opportunity for "Tikun Olam," to repair the world. Even sadder, our world collapsed. Is it all his fault? Of course not. Could he have made a difference? A tremendous one, I believe. I enjoyed the book tremendously and highly recommend (in fact, INSIST!), that anyone who grew up on the South Side and moved in the late 60s read Louis Rosen's thoughtful and evocative book.

A powerful look at the forces that define a community

This is a powerful book that looks at the forces that define -- and redefine -- a community. Although the book primarily looks at a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, SOUTH SIDE reaches far beyond geographic boundaries. The author forces you to ask yourself questions such as "What would I do in this situation? Would I stay? Would I go? What would I sacrifice? And when would I have had enough?" This is the kind of book that you read -- and then find yourself engaged in heated discussions with your family, your friends -- and your neighbors. I recommend this book. Although it focuses on a time in the early sixties, the book, its subject and its conclusions are timeless.

a clear-headed, gripping book about race and neighborhoods

In the 1950's a middle-class, Jewish community in Chicago, gave way to racial panic. In a few years the faces on its streets had changed from white to black. The Jewish community, including its leaders, had fled. Louis Rosen grew up in that neighborhood and, for the last five years he has been interviewing those who left and those who moved in. The result; an astoundingly gripping series of stories told in their own words by those who were lived through this experience.. Rosen has brilliantly juxtaposed and intercut their testimony, never finiding fault, never laying blame, but conveying the deepest feeeling of anger, guilt and anguish. The book is an impelling read; its effect like that of Greek drama. It is not for stone-throwers or hand wringers, but for sober, normal citizens; like those who people its admirable pages.

A moving memoir and more...

To those of us who grew up on the south side in the '6os (and our parents), the issues and questions that Louis Rosen confronts in his book are as much of a part of our lives now as they were then. And to those friends and acquaintances who did not, the story of our neighborhood's change is always a compelling one, because it is always a personal story. Mr. Rosen has given us his own moving account of coming of age and coming to terms in a conflicted world, but by including the affecting stories of so many others around him, he reveals the heart of a neighborhood. "The South Side" is ultimately a tale of what makes a community, and how a community shapes the lives of the people in it. It is a story that will forever be (and should be) told, and this lovely book should be a stepping off point for those voices still waiting to be heard.