Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American city
By:
Antero Pietila
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List Price: $28.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5
Description:
Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization. The Federal Housing Administration continued discriminatory housing policies even into the 1960s, long after civil rights legislation. This all-American tale is told through the prism of Baltimore, from its early suburbanization in the 1880s to the consequences of white flight after World War II, and into the first decade of the twenty-first century. The events are real, and so are the heroes and villains. Mr. Pietila's narrative centers on the human side of residential real estate practices, whose discriminatory tools were the same everywhere: restrictive covenants, redlining, blockbusting, predatory lending.
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Moving The Color Line - What a fine book--Not In My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped A Great American City by Antero Pietila. I intended to do a quick read but ended up doing a SLOW one--highlighting the book extensively and identifying in a Baltimore mapbook every street location and neighborhood Pietila discusses. I found it to be a highly informative case study, one that has been replicated in cities across America, about how whites, aided by politicians, bankers, realtors, zoning officials, the FHA, churches, and other groups, fought the encroachment of African-Americans into their neighborhoods, and the methods blockbusters used to drive whites out and provide housing and financing for blacks, all the while filling their own coffers. But Not In My Neighborhood is not a textbook. Pietila not only tracks the movement of minorities through urban neighborhoods over many generations, he details the histories of the people involved and tells the most interesting stories about them. After all, Pietila spent thirty-five years with the Baltimore Sun, covering the city's neighborhoods, politics, and government, so he knows where the bones are buried, and he tells all. This book is as much fun as fiction.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Entertaining and Enlightening - I enjoyed the book very much but don't know how enlightening it would be for someone not from the local area. Certainly many of the instances of prejudice and segregation cited would be understandable almost anywhere, but the local references were particularly relatable. I've shared it with my neighbor, a retired real estate salesperson, and plan to send it on or recommend it to any number of family and friends. I sort ot wished there had been space for a few more maps of specific neighborhoods.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
A sharply critical, exhaustively researched, and absolutely invaluable analysis - Not In My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City is a revealing expose about how bigotry and residential segregation impacted Baltimore's development - as well as that of America at large, using Baltimore as a mirror to reflect national trends. From how public discrimination shifted to focus especially upon African-Americans and Jews in the late nineteenth century onward, to the racially biased housing policies enacted by the Federal Housing Administration up to the 1960s, to the consequences of white flight after World War II, and much more, Not In My Neighborhood examines the overall paradigm of human behavior and its deleterious consequences resounding up to the present day and beyond. A sharply critical, exhaustively researched, and absolutely invaluable analysis, Not In My Neighborhood is the most important kind of history book - the history that must be studied so that its mistakes are not repeated (and that so solutions to difficult problems can be worked upon for the future)! Highly recommended.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great history of Baltimore housing - Antero Pietila has written one of the best history books on the city of Baltimore. His attention to detail on incidents, people and the struggles of the past that have shaped the current city is remarkable. Once I picked the book up, I could not put it down. He covers many of the famous neighborhoods of Baltimore and describes how segregation shaped the city. He explains the migration from white to jewish to black in many neighborhoods and how exploitation created the slums in Baltimore. I highly recommend the book to any one who is interested in our local and national history.
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