Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

I found this book while looking for something else. What a great find. I volunteer with two organizations which operate on the Southside of Chicago. I do have some 'street experience'. But this book opened up an entirely new world and expanded my view. Dr. Anderson presents a study of how people interact and attempt to remain safe in the public spaces of poor, inner city neighborhoods. Not only that, but he also given an explanation of how and why this culture evolved. He provides a great deal of info, both theory and practical. While his work is scholarly, this book is written for the general public; very readable. Highly recommend.

This book was insightful in helping me understand why the social opposition identity paradigm is so important to those who live by the street code. Mr. Anderson does a tremendous job in detailing how it is so precarious for so called decent and street people to share the same public space. The book takes us along a Philadelphia street called, German town Avenue and how the various social classes interact with members of other social classes and those of their own kind. It is a book work reading especially if you want to know why the ravage-poor behave the way they do.