cover image On the Edge: A History of Poor Black Children and Their American Dreams

On the Edge: A History of Poor Black Children and Their American Dreams

Carl H. Nightingale. Basic Books, $24 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-465-03651-6

Basing his book on historical analysis and present-day fieldwork in Philadelphia, Nightengale adds a compelling new viewpoint to the study of inner-city poverty. He criticizes both liberal and conservative ``culture of poverty'' theorists for neglecting the role of mainstream American culture in shaping the attitudes of alienated ghetto youths. Their embrace of conspicuous consumption, he emphasizes, has risen in response to the economic and racial exclusion they face in the rest of their lives. Worse, the endemic violence of the mass media has become the major source of ``masculine violent ethical culture'' in the ghetto. Thus, the author suggets that inner-city renewal will depend not only on increased job opportunities, but also on a ``national culture of commitment and community'' that such youngsters can find persuasive. Nightengale teaches history at the University of Massachusetts. (Oct.)