A Ghetto Takes Shape
May 02, 2014
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/59dqc8kx9780252006906.html A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930 by Kenneth Kusmer In 1865, the Cleveland Leader boasted…
Kenneth Kusmer
"Kenneth L. Kusmer has written the best book yet on the formation of a black urban ghetto. It stands as a tribute to the blend of urban and Afro-American history."--Howard P. Chudacoff, American Historical Review. "What makes Kusmer stand out among books on blacks in the urban North is the breadth and sophistication with which he conceptualizes his study. . . . The grace and intelligence of Kusmer make his book the single best study of the shaping of modern black ghettos. . . . Should be greeted warmly by historians of blacks and of urban America."--Nancy Weiss, Reviews in American History. "Drawing upon a variety of statistical and literary primary sources . . . Kusmer presents a richly documented case study. His felicitously lucid and comprehensive analysis of the growth of one black ghetto promises to provide a model for future historians of the second major chapter in the Afro-American experience. In my view, Kusmer's multifaceted historical analysis of black Cleveland represents the finest case study of an urban black community to appear in the past decade."--Marion Kilson, Journal of Interdisciplinary History. "Instead of fixing upon the pathological aspects of the ghetto or the racial discriminations of the white majority he finds his unifying theme in the leadership and decision0making within the black community. This is a richly detailed and thoughtfully constructed book."--Louis R. Harlan, Journal of American History. Kenneth L. Kusmer is assistant professor of history at Temple University, where he teaches urban and social history. He was born in Cleveland and grew up on the east side of that city. He was educated at Oberlin College, Kent State University, and the University of Chicago. He received the Louis Pelzer Award of the Organization of American Historians in 1973.
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