A01=Russell Leigh Sharman
african americans
america
anthropologists
anthropology
Author_Russell Leigh Sharman
Category=JHMC
chinese americans
class differences
east harlem
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnic differences
gender studies
gentrification
harlem residents
housing
immigrant experiences
inner city life
italian americans
new york
nonfiction biography
oral histories
personal stories
puerto ricans
race issues
sociology
street life
transient living
undocumented mexicans
united states
urban history
urban life
west africa
Product details
- ISBN 9780520247475
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 03 Aug 2006
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Rich with the textures and rhythms of street life, "The Tenants of East Harlem" is an absorbing and unconventional biography of a neighborhood told through the life stories of seven residents whose experiences there span nearly a century. Modeled on the ethnic distinctions that divide the community, the book portrays the old guard of East Harlem: Pete, one of the last Italian holdouts; Jose, a Puerto Rican; and Lucille, an African American. Side by side with these representatives of a century of ethnic succession are the newcomers: Maria, an undocumented Mexican; Mohamed, a West African entrepreneur; Si Zhi, a Chinese immigrant and landlord; and, finally, the author himself, a reluctant beneficiary of urban renewal. Russell Leigh Sharman deftly weaves these oral histories together with fine-grained ethnographic observations and urban history to examine the ways that immigration, housing, ethnic change, gentrification, race, class, and gender have affected the neighborhood over time.
Providing unique access to the nuances of inner-city life, "The Tenants of East Harlem" shows how roots sink so quickly in a community that has always hosted the transient, how new immigrants are challenging the claims of the old, and how that cycle is threatened as never before by the specter of gentrification.
Russell Leigh Sharman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Brooklyn College.
