Reviews

3.5 stars. A fascinating history of institutionalized racism in Baltimore housing policy and how that has created the city as it currently exists. A horrifying story, told with compassion.

noctem_novelle's review against another edition

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2.0

This book contains a lot of interesting and important information, but the author tends to go on tangents and a lot of the history falls through the cracks of your brain. It's hard to keep the story straight when Pietila keeps branching out in twelve different directions at once. I enjoyed it purely because I find Baltimore interesting. It took me AGES to finish reading it, though, because I kept having to stop to read other things. This book gave me migraines.

amanda_shelflove's review against another edition

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3.0

I started this book a few years ago but put it down because I found it really slow. But since I live in Baltimore, I wanted to give it another try so I bought the audiobook version hoping it‰ЫЄd be easier to read in that format. Unfortunately I really couldn‰ЫЄt get into the book. There was definitely a lot of interesting info given on redlining and other racist laws in Baltimore but I was not enraptured by any of the anecdotes. I didn‰ЫЄt care to hear stories of specific white people doing racist things because those stories are, quite frankly, a dime a dozen, especially in the time periods discussed in the book. It‰ЫЄs f*cked up. The author expressed hope for the future at the end of the book because Obama was elected but I take a more pessimistic view. Baltimore is still very segregated geographically. We have corrupt politicians, a governor who does not like or care about Baltimore, and companies like the Atlas group that continue these prejudice ‰ЫПtraditions‰Ыќ but in different forms and methods.

This book was well done for what it is but I just personally didn‰ЫЄt like the layout and writing style. I‰ЫЄm still interested in this topic though and plan on reading more books on the topic.

jakewritesbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

(4.5) A devastating look at the history of Baltimore's racist housing policies. Pietila does a great job nailing down how racism would morph from brute superiority to eugenics to other legal methods up to today. The book is at its strongest when it covers everything up through the 60s and blockbusting. The Baltimore county and subprime chapters are substandard and the author gets caught up in the Obama hype following his first election (and frankly, who didn't? Just added a weird tone to the end). But overall, I learned a lot about my beloved Baltimore. Enough to make me sad, angry, and ready to take action.

ejdecoster's review against another edition

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3.0

An interesting, though not totally engrossing, history of the intersection of housing policy and racial/ethic prejudice in Baltimore. For those familiar with Baltimore, there are a number of interesting components to this story, addressing some of the segregation and the neighborhoods of Baltimore, but I don't think Pietila made sufficient connections with other cities and locations to make the story as broad as he was aiming for.

lem119's review against another edition

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2.0

The book focuses on the way racism and the laws surrounding it during the post-reconstruction period up through the world wars, civil rights movement, and today, shaped the city of Baltimore (and can also be somewhat used as a case study for other urban areas). It's a very interesting topic, particularly given the context for which I'm reading it (a class on The Wire and its representation of Baltimore's social and economic divides), but it's so dry and full of statistics that it was very difficult to get through. There are so many names and places that aren't fully identified or explained that I found much of it confusing, and an overall interesting thesis was lost under the mountain of stats. The parts about specific people and bits of legislation were interesting though.

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