I often feel like a voyeur when I read books like "Code of the Street" and David Simon's "The Corner." They provide an insight into a world that I will likely never see. Dr. Anderson's work is a wake-up call to American leaders in that there needs to be significant change in public policy.

At the start of the book, I was under the impression that the journey was to run along Germantown Avenue and explore the issues facing each neighborhood. After moving through Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and North Philadelphia, Dr. Anderson inexplicably makes a right turn at Girard Avenue and ends the story in a similiarly distressed area. The story could have explored issues within the Hispanic neighborhoods, poor & working class neighborhods in West Kensington & Fishtown, as well as the the effects of gentrification and I-95 on the Northern Liberties.

Dr. Anderson's account is concise and balanced. It is unfortunate that the book does not remain true to it's original premise of examining the issues of the neighborhoods along the entire length of G'Town avenue.

Elijah Anderson's Code of the Street is, as one would expect from an observer with Professor Anderswon's track record, extremely valuable in demystifying and humanizing the behavior of both the good and the bad of the people who live in the nation's black ghettos. With his usual keen eye and ear, and his interest in human behavior, and his good humor, Anderson puts us right on the streets of Philadelphia (and every other urban area), walking among the well-to-do and the striving and the desperate as we track Germantown Avenue from the environs of comfort and affluence back to the inner city. The book's value in explaining the behavior of those at the bottom of the society, whether that behavior is good or bad, as the normal reaction of human beings when faced with an extreme situation can't be over-praised. His description of the code of the street also rang bells for me that all of us, including those that live and work in far more rarefied environs, also operate by codes of behavior that, in both their good and bad manifestations, are fundamentally no different than the ones identified here. They, usually, are just expressed in a more genteel fashion.

Code of the Street corrects the myth, held by many, that the inner city underclass does not want to work. The book has helped me to discuss with my two foster girls, the difference between decent and street people how to recognize the game. I read passages to them and we discuss, in depth, the issue. I urge all parents, especially foster parents, to read this book. I had repeatedly observed the Code but like a jigsaw puzzle, not understanding how it all connected. Thanks to Mr. Anderson, he enabled me to see the picture entirely as it exists.

The is a brilliant piece for the time it was written (in 1992). But when I read it last week, I felt that many of the themes about ghetto v. middle class cultures were apparent to me. Dr. Anderson is a professor at phenn and I guess that is why i was required to read it here (Penn's soci 001 course). Anderson drove the point home in his introduction and trying to read on for 200 pages was a pain. He says "compounded by race" after every chapter. Maybe if I wasn't rushed to write an essay for the course, I could have appreciated this scholarly volume a bit more.

This book actually gets at the guts of the problem of social relations between blacks and whites. As gentrification becomes a larger problem in American cities, the economic prospects are shadowing the social issues that are swept under the rug by politicans. The reader gains a sense of the residents of northton and the village and hopefully will understand why we act like we do.(ignorant) Understand the power of this sociological masterpiece and it will bring to light what others do to protect their urban community.

Read this book! Not only was "The Philadelphia Negro" a groundbreaking piece of sociological research in its day (the late 19th century), the book also goes a long way to explain the historical roots of much of what we see today in Philadelphia and other cities in America. Organized simply and effectively into clear chapters, we learn how African Americans really lived in Philadelphia after emancipation; detailing family and household arrangements, employment, education, health and religion. Elijah Anderson's introduction is a fantastic bonus, helping to illuminate the book even more. Everyone living in Philadelphia should read this!