Reviews for South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City

The average rating for South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-01-05 00:00:00 Elizabeth Smith An excellent time line of how the South Bronx went from working class neighborhoods to "the worst slum in America," unfortunately I found a serious lack of critical analysis around race, Giuliani's "broken windows" policing effort, the real estate industry, and other issues.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-07-14 00:00:00 Carlos Paz For anyone interested in the Bronx or urban sociology, this book is a must. It is not technical, yet specific enough to give the layperson an idea of how a community can go from farmland to burning destruction in 70 years. The speed with which the Bronx grew and fell is breathtaking. This book is out of print, but well worth grabbing a copy from a used book seller before it disappears (I would urge Fordham University Press to keep it in print or at least make an eBook of it). How the Bronx grew as Manhattan grew and the elevated trains made the northern county accessible is one story. How it grew during the twenties and thirties and become choice real estate in the forties is another story. And then in the 1950s, many different factors caused the Bronx to slowly decline until the decline became a landslide (loss of factory jobs, increase of uneducated immigrants, cars, the Cross Bronx Expressway--there are many causes). The update for this volume, originally published in 1986, is 2002 and since then, the Bronx has made greater strides. The people from Detroit who are interested in revitalizing their city would be wise to read this volume. However, the Bronx has the great advantage to be an outer borough of one of the greatest cities in the World from which it can gain and give much.