Staff Pick
On the Run documents the years Goffman, a sociology professor, spent embedded in one of Philadelphia’s worst neighborhoods, befriending and observing a group of young Black men. Goffman’s argument is that the War on Drugs, while ineffective at curbing the illegal drug trade, has allowed a de facto surveillance state to develop in inner-city neighborhoods. Her argument is compelling, but what makes Goffman’s book exemplary are her personal anecdotes and the life stories of her friends and subjects. On the Run forces the reader to see statistics as human beings, and the experience is illuminating. Recommended By Rhianna W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A RIVETING, GROUNDBREAKING ACCOUNT OF HOW THE WAR ON CRIME HAS TORN APART INNER-CITY COMMUNITIES
Forty
years in, the tough on crime turn in American politics has spurred a
prison boom of historic proportions that disproportionately affects
Black communities. It has also torn at the lives of those on the
outside. As arrest quotas and high tech surveillance criminalize entire
blocks, a climate of fear and suspicion pervades daily life, not only
for young men entangled in the legal system, but for their family
members and working neighbors.
Alice Goffman spent six years in one
Philadelphia neighborhood, documenting the routine stops, searches,
raids, and beatings that young men navigate as they come of age. In the
course of her research, she became roommates with Mike and Chuck, two
friends trying to make ends meet between low wage jobs and the drug
trade. Like many in the neighborhood, Mike and Chuck were caught up in a
cycle of court cases, probation sentences, and low level warrants, with
no clear way out. We observe their girlfriends and mothers enduring
raids and interrogations, "clean" residents struggling to go to school
and work every day as the cops chase down neighbors in the streets, and
others eking out a living by providing clean urine, fake documents, and
off the books medical care. This fugitive world is the hidden
counterpoint to mass incarceration, the grim underside of our nation's
social experiment in punishing Black men and their families. While
recognizing the drug trade's damage, On The Run reveals a justice
system gone awry: it is an exemplary work of scholarship highlighting
the failures of the War on Crime, and a compassionate chronicle of the
families caught in the midst of it.
Review
“Alice Goffman's On the Run is the best treatment I know of the
wretched underside of neo-liberal capitalist America. Despite the social
misery and fragmented relations, she gives us a subtle analysis and
poignant portrait of our fellow citizens who struggle to preserve their
sanity and dignity.” Cornel West
Review
“Necessary… Goffman's lively prose — communicated in a striking voice
rare for an academic — opens a window into a life where paranoia has
become routine… She goes beyond her street-level focus to argue
something more profound.” Baltimore City Paper
Review
“A remarkable feat of reporting…The level of detail in this book and
Goffman's ability to understand her subjects' motivations are
astonishing — and riveting.” The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
ALICE GOFFMAN grew up in Philadelphia and attended graduate
school at Princeton University. She teaches in the sociology department
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City.