The City that Bleeds: Race, History, and the Death of Baltimore (2013, houses)

[steppinthrax]

Has anyone read this or have this book? I've been thinking of getting it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-City-that-.../dp/1495929744

They have a good section on there regarding Plexiglass. How Baltimore has gotten so out of control that some areas have "behind-glass-stores".

[dogpark]

Careful with that author, he's a known race baiter:
The Charles Bronson of Race - Taki's Magazine

More books like that one:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runnin..._white_sup.php

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Careful with that author, he's a known race baiter:
The Charles Bronson of Race - Taki's Magazine

More books like that one:
Here Are White Supremacists' Favorite Amazon Kindle E-Books | Village Voice

WOW,

You read the book by it's cover.


In "Captain America and Whiteness: The Dilemma of the Superhero"

Paul argues how comic book characters (superheros) have traditionally been WHITE.

Captain America. Superman. Batman. The Green Lantern. Wolverine. Spider-Man. The Punisher. The Flash. Daredevil. Iron Man. Thor. All heroes. All white. The most beloved characters from the pages of comics are all united in their whiteness. Captain America and Whiteness is the sequel to Hollywood in Blackface, a book that argued the quintessential white action star is being completely erased from cinema and replaced with Black Fictional Images (BFI). The dilemma is that Hollywood has come to rely on the highly marketable and lucrative - established - superheroes in a bid to remain profitable. It is superhero movies that give white actors the opportunity to star where they once again save the world. It is these movies that deny Will Smith the opportunity to monopolize that role. In an age when "treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity", superhero movies and comics provide a window into a world where the concept of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" isn't an outdated mode of thinking. With the recent decision by Marvel to kill-off the white Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the "Ultimate" comics, and replace him with a half-Black/half-Hispanic Spider-Man, "Captain America and Whiteness" is more timely than ever.

[dogpark]

You've carefully avoided race so far, but books like these can change that (don't care about the superhero one)

If you really want to understand Baltimore, I suggest Antero Pietila's Not in My Neighborhood and David Rusk's Baltimore Unbound

[Hamish Forbes]

I have a copy of The City that Bleeds, and I have read it. I'd say skip this one. It's not especially good, although it does provide a large number of citations to articles in major newspapers and lengthy quotations from these articles. It's pretty hard on blacks, as I recall. In any case, I guess it's impossible to talk about race without being accused of being racist.

As far as the Pietila book, which I also have: It's more sophisticated than Bleeds, and is clearly the better of the two by far. But it suffers from the same fatal flaw, in my opinion. That is they are both magnificent examples of confirmation bias -- in neither case (again only in my opinion) does the author attempt to be objective, but instead sifts data and advances non sequiturs and obviously faulty models to support a preconceived point of view; Pietila also has some factual errors and sins mightily by omission.

A good one, though, is The Baltimore Rowhouse, by Mary Ellen Hayward and Charles Balfoure. This is Baltimore in a nutshell.

I don't know anything about Rusk's book.

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by Hamish Forbes

I have a copy of The City that Bleeds, and I have read it. I'd say skip this one. It's not especially good, although it does provide a large number of citations to articles in major newspapers and lengthy quotations from these articles. It's pretty hard on blacks, as I recall. In any case, I guess it's impossible to talk about race without being accused of being racist.

As far as the Pietila book, which I also have: It's more sophisticated than Bleeds, and is clearly the better of the two by far. But it suffers from the same fatal flaw, in my opinion. That is they are both magnificent examples of confirmation bias -- in neither case (again only in my opinion) does the author attempt to be objective, but instead sifts data and advances non sequiturs and obviously faulty models to support a preconceived point of view; Pietila also has some factual errors and sins mightily by omission.

A good one, though, is The Baltimore Rowhouse, by Mary Ellen Hayward and Charles Balfoure. This is Baltimore in a nutshell.

I don't know anything about Rusk's book.

I do agree with your above bolded statement in it's entirety.

I believe to write any scholarly book about Baltimore, you will get into Race, when you talk race in Baltimore, you are immediately labeled a racist.

[dogpark]

Two other good books along this line are:
Orser's Blockbusting in Baltimore
Another Mary Ellen Haywood book Baltimore's Alley Houses

[Hamish Forbes]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Two other good books along this line are:
Orser's Blockbusting in Baltimore
Another Mary Ellen Haywood book Baltimore's Alley Houses

^^

This author may be Hayward rather than Haywood.

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by Hamish Forbes

^^

This author may be Hayward rather than Haywood.

Sorry, typing fast at work, good catch!

[KrazyRushan]

If you want real Baltimore, like Raw baltimore - watch The Wire.