Gang Leader for a Day

A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

By: Sudhir Venkatesh

Narrated by: Reg Rogers, Sudhir Venkatesh, Stephen J. Dubner

The story of the young sociologist who studied a Chicago crack-dealing gang from the inside captured the world's attention when it was first described in Freakonomics. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatest managed to gain entree into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment.

When Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago's most notorious housing projects, he was looking for people to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty. A first-year grad student hoping to impress his professors with his boldness, he never imagined that as a result of the assignment he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there.

Over the next seven years, Venkatesh got to know the neighborhood dealers, crackheads, squatters, prostitutes, pimps, activists, cops, organizers, and officials. From his privileged position of unprecedented access, he observed JT and the rest of the gang as they operated their crack-selling business, conducted PR within their community, and rose up or fell within the ranks of the gang's complex organizational structure.

In Hollywood speak, Gang Leader for a Day is The Wire meets the University of Chicago. It's a brazen and fundamentally honest view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in what is tantamount to an urban war zone. It is also the story of a complicated friendship between Sudhir and JT: two young and ambitious men a universe apart.

©2008 Sudhir Venkatesh (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

" Gang Leader for a Day is an absolutely incredible book. Sudhir Venkatesh's memoir of his years observing life in Chicago's inner city is a book unlike any other I have read, equal parts comedy and tragedy." (Steven D. Levitt, co-author, Freakonomics)

The brief background music startled/angered me!

Please get rid of the silly pieces of music at the beginning of each chapter! It's the reason I rated he performance with 3 stars instead of 5!!

An informative and thought provoking listen...

A superb excursion into the evolution of the gang scene in Chicago in recent decades! Having read There Are No Children Here by a Chicago Tribune journalist (sorry, name escapes me...) while in grad school, this was an awesome follow-up on how the residents in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago have coped with the challenges of everyday life and the consequences of well-intentioned policy makers who just don't get it. Highly recommend reading the other book first, then listening to Sudhir's excellent ethnographic research to understand how intricate socio-economic networks have evolved and sustained themselves over time. Very eye-opening and a great read!!

A gritty, thought-provoking, eye opener. wow.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. However understand that this book chronicles 4 years that the author spent living among the gangs of the Chicago housing projects. It's not intended to be a fluffy story. If you really want to understand how a gang organizes itself, draw parallels to to modern business, get more information about the Freakonomics chapter about gangs and economics, or try to better understand those living in the projects, this is an awesome listen.

What did you like best about this story?

It really changed my attitude about why people live the way they do, why they don't accept help, and why they would turn a blind eye to what I consider appauling behavior. At times I had to walk away for a while to process the information, which is a good thing. It tells me I'm really giving consideration to the book. It took me far outside my comfort zone. At times I loathed the subjects and at other times I wanted to invite them out for coffee. Good job Sudhir. I found JT rather likeable.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator added a grit to the story that made me feel like I was living in the projects. Had I read it myself, it would have been a fluffier story with flowers, puppies, and ice cream in it. The story would have suffered had I read it myself.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I stumbled upon this audio book and remembered the authors name from a chapter in Freakonomics. Since Freakonomics makes my top three books list, I gleefully purchased this book. However I had to listen on commutes, so it took me a couple of days to finish. Good thing too. It gave me time to contemplate the actions of the subjects and change my attitude toward them. (Thank you Sudhir)

Any additional comments?

So grateful I got to listen to this book. When reading Freakonomics, I always wanted more information. This book deeply satisfied that desire. Delighted Sudhir lived to tell the tale.

A Must read.

A view inside a gang. Personal and hard hitting. The winners and losers of inner city life

10/10 would recommend

This book was so well written and so well read I found myself looking forward to my commute just because I was able to continue listening. Provides an unparalleled look into the lives of youth, as well as adults doing their best to survive in a world overlooked by public officials, federal programs, and middle class citizens alike. Provided a unique perspective. Can’t wait to read the one about NYC!

A fascinating look into life in the projects

In the early 90s, Sudhir Venkatesh, an Indian-American graduate student with a certain naive bravado, decided to walk into one of Chicago's most notorious projects, a place where even ambulances wouldn’t go, and interview people who lived there, asking the sort of daft survey questions that only academics can dream up. Quickly, he was corralled by gang members and escorted to their leader, a man named (well, pseudonymed) JT. Though the gang members laughed at Venkatesh's naivete, JT was intrigued by his research, and permitted him a safe entree into the world of the projects.

That world is pretty fascinating. Though violence, drug abuse, and squalor abound, Venkatesh paints a picture of a strangely well-organized community, with its own leadership hierarchy, rules, underground economy, and politics. Without much in the way of police involvement and social services, the Black Kings gang fills the vacuum, becoming a sort of law enforcement body, community organizer (to the point of initiating voter registration drives), and resolver of disputes. As well a tax collector and, lest we forget, a peddler of a socially corrosive drug.

It was also quite interesting to learn of how businesslike the gang's internal operations were. JT, a guy with some college education, comes across as surprisingly pragmatic, intent on protecting his reputation, but preferring to avoid gang wars and the chaos caused by small criminals, both of which cost him customers and attract police attention. Sometimes, the BK’s meetings seem so businesslike, I wouldn't have been surprised if there had been powerpoint slides. The leaders rationalize their morally problematic trade with a perverse pride in themselves as a community institution and the belief that they’re only making addicts of people who have no self-control anyway.

Another fascinating figure is fierce building president Ms. Bailey, who puts the dilemma of the urban poor in blunt but Socratically eloquent terms. "If your family was starving," she asks, "and someone offered you a chance to make some money, would you stay in school?" She acts as a devoted community advocate, securing goods and services for those in need, often from the BKs, but is a bit of a tyrant in her methods, and seems to get a small piece of the action herself.

The easy cliches fall by the wayside pretty quickly. Everyone's interests are tied up in some way with everyone else's. Project residents tolerate the gangs (if grudgingly) because they're the only real order there is. As do, to some degree, the police. The gangs carry out a certain amount of PR because they're dependent on the goodwill of the other residents. Most people aspire to something better than what they have, but often, the only two options for getting ahead (for young men, anyway) are joining a gang and rising up within the ranks or getting out of the projects altogether. The latter, of course, is easier said than done. The bad choices being made become much more understandable in light of the few choices available.

If there’s a weakness here, it's that everything is filtered through the author’s subjective perspective. I wouldn't have minded a wider picture -- he never does get around to interviewing Chicago's bureaucrats, as Ms. Bailey suggests. I also would have liked to see his narrative build towards a firmer set of conclusions, rather than just dropping away when his graduate work comes to an end. What happened to all these people in the ten plus years that went by before he wrote and published this book?

Not huge complaints, though. It’s a very compelling read. The audiobook narrator isn’t bad but his choice of accent for JT is a little odd. The guy ends up sounding like a 1940s Hollywood gangster.

Loved It

Any additional comments?

I loved this book, the writing is festinating and lively. All the characters, i.e. the people the author met throughout his years with JT's gang. The story and his experiences though amazing, I was most impressed by how he used the book to remind us that sometimes, it pays to stay quiet. Sometimes you can learn so much more by listening, even when in an unexpected place and from unexpected people.

This book is I think, one of the best autobiographies I've read. You should read it. There is so much you can learn, one of which is the lesson is to learn to accept others and not let appearance to deceive you as well as the levels of relationships explored and discussed in Gang Leader for a Day.

My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough

Where does Gang Leader for a Day rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Great book, one of my handful of favourites so far

What did you like best about this story?

While being a true story with incredible insight into "living in the projects", the story is captivating and as good or better than fiction.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

There are some reviews that criticize the narrator. I disagree. I thought the narrator did a good job at bringing out some of the different personalities and characters.

Any additional comments?

Highly recommend this book especially if you like to get a little education while reading something enjoyable.

The real inside to gangs

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The reader is very good at voices to differentiate characters.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I wouldnt

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

Jt

If you could give Gang Leader for a Day a new subtitle, what would it be?

I wouldn’t change it

Any additional comments?

Great interesting story

Great book

This was a very insightful book into life in the "ghetto". There was never a dull moment in the book.