High-Risers

Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing

By: Ben Austen

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Joining the ranks of Evicted, The Warmth of Other Sons, and classic works of literary nonfiction by Alex Kotlowitz and J. Anthony Lukas, High-Risers braids personal narratives, city politics, and national history to tell the timely and epic story of Chicago's Cabrini-Green, America's most iconic public housing project.

Built in the 1940s atop an infamous Italian slum, Cabrini-Green grew to 23 towers and a population of 20,000 - all of it packed onto just 70 acres a few blocks from Chicago's ritzy Gold Coast. Cabrini-Green became synonymous with crime, squalor, and the failure of government. For the many who lived there, it was also a much-needed resource - it was home. By 2011, every high-rise had been razed, the island of black poverty engulfed by the white affluence around it, the families dispersed.

In this novelistic and eye-opening narrative, Ben Austen tells the story of America's public housing experiment and the changing fortunes of American cities. It is an account told movingly though the lives of residents who struggled to make a home for their families as powerful forces converged to accelerate the housing complex's demise. Beautifully written, rich in detail, and full of moving portraits, High-Risers is a sweeping exploration of race, class, popular culture, and politics in modern America that brilliantly considers what went wrong in our nation's effort to provide affordable housing to the poor - and what we can learn from those mistakes.

©2018 Ben Austen (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Author Ben Austen and narrator Ron Butler create something special in this outstanding examination of Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing projects. Butler captures the characters of residents, cops, housing officials, and others.... This is a fine, sympathetic portrait of a place and its people, both of which have long been overshadowed by myth and stereotype." (AudioFile)

Very well written and performed

This book does a great job of weaving story through educational and historical informafion. The narrator is one of the best.

Wow!!!!

I have learned so much from this book. I am from Chicago and I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about the projects here, but wow!!!! It was like it’s own society and how unfair they were treated in the end.

Fascinating story with difficult chronology

The research, writing, and story all are fantastic. As an audiobook, it jumps around chronologically and across storylines frequently/without a clear delineation. Made the story harder to follow, but still definitely worth the listen.

Overtly melodramatic, but necessarily so.

Can't really articulate the situation of these populations using rational academic language. Reading something like this is the only way to "get it", and decipher the motivations and mind sets of the disadvantaged African American population.

Very informative

I didn't know that much about Cabrini Green and the other housing projects that were demolished. Now I know now where there is so many vacant lots where most of the public housing building once stood

How do you fight the wind?

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I grew up afraid of different parts of my city. The violence in my neighborhood and others seemed inevitable and undeniable. Through it all Cabrini Green and the other housing projects remained ghoulish reminders not of individual behavior, but of collective neglect and destabilization by the government. This book does a remarkable job exploring the causes for the crumbling of public housing and the lifelong effects it had. When it comes to the failures of some individuals to overcome Cabrini, how could you fight the wind? How can you fight something bigger than you that is omnipresent.

Very well done.

Not sure exactly what I expected for how it would be laid out, but the way it is done makes for an interesting read. Loved the perspective of the different people & their journey over the years. Growing up in Chicago, I remember a lot of this from the news, but I didn’t understand most of it it until now. Well done.

Cabrini was my home

listening to this book brought back so many memories, good and horrible. I'm glad Ben Austen wrote this book and focused on the humanity of the residents that lived in the neighborhood. I am grateful that this book was written.

Loved it

I grew up in the burbs of Chicago and have lived in the city for 20 years now. I’ve always been fascinated with Cabrini Green and frequently drove by the different parts over the years. Back in the day it made my heart beat fast just driving through...it’s always been a notoriously rough place. If your from Chicago you’ll recognize the streets names and conjure up visuals of the Cabrini buildings in your mind. It dives deep into the beginnings at Little Hell, the gang history and the entire story of Cabrini. Along with its history it is also told through the eyes of some of the tenants that lived there which is really interesting. If your fascinated by Cabrini Green or life in the projects you will love this book. This book is well written/read and very entertaining.

Chicago & Public Housing

A great book about the CB projects and the history of public housing in Chicago. Many residents stories are uplifting while others are terrifying.