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by: Jay Macleod
Amazon.com's Price: $33.00 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.5690973
EAN: 9780813341873
ISBN: 0813341876
Label: Westview Press
Manufacturer: Westview Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 344
Publication Date: August 05, 2004
Publisher: Westview Press
Sales Rank: 394852
Studio: Westview Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
With the original 1987 publication of Ain't No Makin' It Jay MacLeod brought us to the Clarendon Heights housing project where we met the 'Brothers' and 'Hallway Hangers.' Their story of poverty, race, and defeatism moved readers and challenged ethnic stereotypes. MacLeod's return eight years later, and the resulting 1995 revision, revealed little improvement in the lives of these men as they struggled in the labor market and crime-ridden underground economy. This classic ethnography addresses one of the most important issues in modern social theory and policy: how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next. Now republished with a preface by Joe Feagin, Ain't No Makin' It remains an admired and invaluable text.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - An Accessible, Enlightening Page-Turner
When I was in college, I read several chapters of Ain't No Makin It as assigned reading for a sociology class. Years later, I came back to the book because I had frequently thought of it and wanted to reread it. Not only is the study enlightening, the writing is clear, insightful and elegant. MacLeod makes highly intelligent arguments without using pretentious language. His sense of metaphor is lovely, always helpful, and never a stretch. Overall, it is a humble body of work from someone who has ... Read More
Rating:  - Ain't No Makin' IT
Book came fast. And in good shape.
Warning: The F-Bomb is used over 100 times. So if you are sensitive to swearing, there is a lot of it.
Rating: - Useful facts and stories; out-dated left theory
There are two books here, one useful and interesting and one not.
The useful and interesting book tells the story of two groups of young men growing up in a public housing project. One group is mostly white and bitterly alienated from society. The other group is mostly black and is hopeful about the future. The group of poor whites turns into junkies, criminals, alcholics and losers. The group of poor blacks turns a modestly less poor version of their parents. The poor whites experience ... Read More
Rating: - Think again
This book is not rubbish. Yes it is slightly propagandistic on the part of "socialism" (though I agree with the views of a previous reviewer), though if you'd seen this type of poverty and social immobility in a FIRST WORLD COUNTRY you'd want to do the same thing. If you read this book and come out with the view that "they should have worked harder", then I believe you are only accepting the view that these people projected onto you. THEY believe they won't make it, so they don't do any work. Also to these ... Read More
Rating: - Moving and Troublesome
I read this years ago in an anthropology/sociology class in college, and I can say that it still carries as much weight today as it did then. Jay manages to weave entertaining narration with factual reporting, resulting in a moving work that points a critical finger at our society. I've actually met the author, and can say that he is an honest, engaging and professional writer. At no point did he milk the drama angle of this work, nor use it to further his own agenda. I noticed another reviewer called this ... Read More
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