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59
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
51/100Critics
67/100Scholars
Author:
Michelle Wilde Anderson
Publisher:
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Date:
June 21, 2022
A study of wealth inequality and the dismantling of local government in four working-class cities across the US that argues for reinvestment in people-centered leadership.
What The Reviewers Say
Anderson’s book is an artful mixture of ethnography, narrative history, in-depth interviews and legal scholarship. Using these tools, she shows us what the absence of government looks like on the ground.
The Fight to Save the Town presents four case studies chosen for their collective ability to demonstrate the ways in which cities emerge from chronic poverty...[Anderson] highlights violence reduction in Stockton; the support of basic services in a decidedly anti-government Josephine County, Ore.; improving job access and security in Lawrence, Mass.; and stabilizing low-income housing in Detroit after a wave of foreclosures and housing loss...Anderson conducted more than 250 interviews to elucidate the struggles people are facing, and from these conversations she became more and more confident that it is those very people who know best how to solve them...But not on their own...She knows not to celebrate individual victories too much and continues to stress the importance of people and governments working together on solutions, independently or in opposition...So much of government, regardless of federal, state or local, feels intractable...Anderson’s book won’t change the mind of anti-government folks (nor does it try to)...But it is a welcome reminder of what government can accomplish if given the chance..
Stanford law professor Anderson debuts with a hard-hitting yet hopeful look at how impoverished communities across the U.S. are fighting for their survival,,.Throughout, Anderson contextualizes her detailed demographic and economic data with vivid portraits of local families and activists. The result is an astute and powerful vision for improving America..
Anderson offers a corrective to bigoted narratives portraying cities as toxic boondoggles, showing how postindustrial decline blurred many complex factors...The author presents historically rooted examinations of Stockton, California; Detroit, Michigan; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and Josephine County, Oregon...She focuses on community activists redefining grassroots efforts after decades of disinvestment....As Anderson demonstrates, during the Great Recession’s foreclosure crisis, stricken local governments navigated state programs for survival...The author’s discussion is complex, though the impact of her arguments is lessened by the repetitive aspects of these narratives of place...Nonetheless, it’s a welcome study of life in late-capitalist America...An ambitious, empathetic work documenting community-building versus political intransigence and racial strife..
