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Rating: 
Summary: I Can See Clearer Now
Review: Code of the Street corrects the myth, held by many, that the inner city underclass does not want to work. The book has helped me to discuss with my two foster girls, the difference between decent and street people how to recognize the game. I read passages to them and we discuss, in depth, the issue. I urge all parents, especially foster parents, to read this book. I had repeatedly observed the Code but like a jigsaw puzzle, not understanding how it all connected. Thanks to Mr. Anderson, he enabled me to see the picture entirely as it exists.
Rating:
Summary: I Can See Clearer Now
Review: Code of the Street corrects the myth, held by many, that the inner city underclass does not want to work. The book has helped me to discuss with my two foster girls, the difference between decent and street people how to recognize the game. I read passages to them and we discuss, in depth, the issue. I urge all parents, especially foster parents, to read this book. I had repeatedly observed the Code but like a jigsaw puzzle, not understanding how it all connected. Thanks to Mr. Anderson, he enabled me to see the picture entirely as it exists.
Rating:
Summary: The truth, and Nothing But the Truth!
Review: Code of the Street, by Elijah Anderson, was an extremely well-written book and very detailed. I often found myself saying, "yup, that's right!" I have lived and went to school in the suburbs, and now I live in the innercity. My experiences between the suburbs and in the innercity are TOTALLY different. Anderson just simply summarized everything about my innercity, even though it was focused just on Germantown. He even explained the types of people I know (even though they are found in all social and economic classes). The type that are "street" people. The "decent" people. Then there are those who are inbetween, like me, the type the "code switch," that can be either "decent" or "street" depending on the situation. He greatly explained the situations and concerns of the innercity people. I had the pleasure meeting Elijah Anderson, and he is a completely a very nice person and keeps things "real." He is not some type of "wanna be" researcher who is trying to write a book about the innercity people, and don't have a clue about how people in the innercity lives. He has experience of living in the innercity, and he wrote this book (along with others) to help explain to others how the situation is in the innercity. I totally support his work.
Rating:
Summary: The truth, and Nothing But the Truth!
Review: Code of the Street, by Elijah Anderson, was an extremely well-written book and very detailed. I often found myself saying, "yup, that's right!" I have lived and went to school in the suburbs, and now I live in the innercity. My experiences between the suburbs and in the innercity are TOTALLY different. Anderson just simply summarized everything about my innercity, even though it was focused just on Germantown. He even explained the types of people I know (even though they are found in all social and economic classes). The type that are "street" people. The "decent" people. Then there are those who are inbetween, like me, the type the "code switch," that can be either "decent" or "street" depending on the situation. He greatly explained the situations and concerns of the innercity people. I had the pleasure meeting Elijah Anderson, and he is a completely a very nice person and keeps things "real." He is not some type of "wanna be" researcher who is trying to write a book about the innercity people, and don't have a clue about how people in the innercity lives. He has experience of living in the innercity, and he wrote this book (along with others) to help explain to others how the situation is in the innercity. I totally support his work.
Rating: 
Summary: We All Live By The Codes
Review: Elijah Anderson's Code of the Street is, as one would expect from an observer with Professor Anderswon's track record, extremely valuable in demystifying and humanizing the behavior of both the good and the bad of the people who live in the nation's black ghettos. With his usual keen eye and ear, and his interest in human behavior, and his good humor, Anderson puts us right on the streets of Philadelphia (and every other urban area), walking among the well-to-do and the striving and the desperate as we track Germantown Avenue from the environs of comfort and affluence back to the inner city. The book's value in explaining the behavior of those at the bottom of the society, whether that behavior is good or bad, as the normal reaction of human beings when faced with an extreme situation can't be over-praised. His description of the code of the street also rang bells for me that all of us, including those that live and work in far more rarefied environs, also operate by codes of behavior that, in both their good and bad manifestations, are fundamentally no different than the ones identified here. They, usually, are just expressed in a more genteel fashion.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: I came away from this book with quite a bit.
One of the most important things is the difference between street and decent. It is difficult to figure out who is who. Its supposed to be that way. Its about survival.
Anderson breaks stereotypes. He gives a thorough description of the oppositional culture. He discusses sex and children without full responsibility as proof of manhood. He also includes what girls are trying to gain as well. He points out that by the time that children enter fourth grade they already know that respect in the education system is very different from that on the streets. Its encredibly difficult for children and it shouldn't be this hard.
I think that in order to solve a problem you need to know what the problem is. He lays this out very well. I liked it so much that I have started to read Streetwise.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: I came away from this book with quite a bit.
One of the most important things is the difference between street and decent. It is difficult to figure out who is who. Its supposed to be that way. Its about survival.
Anderson breaks stereotypes. He gives a thorough description of the oppositional culture. He discusses sex and children without full responsibility as proof of manhood. He also includes what girls are trying to gain as well. He points out that by the time that children enter fourth grade they already know that respect in the education system is very different from that on the streets. Its encredibly difficult for children and it shouldn't be this hard.
I think that in order to solve a problem you need to know what the problem is. He lays this out very well. I liked it so much that I have started to read Streetwise.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating inisght but somehow incomplete
Review: I often feel like a voyeur when I read books like "Code of the Street" and David Simon's "The Corner." They provide an insight into a world that I will likely never see. Dr. Anderson's work is a wake-up call to American leaders in that there needs to be significant change in public policy. At the start of the book, I was under the impression that the journey was to run along Germantown Avenue and explore the issues facing each neighborhood. After moving through Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and North Philadelphia, Dr. Anderson inexplicably makes a right turn at Girard Avenue and ends the story in a similiarly distressed area. The story could have explored issues within the Hispanic neighborhoods, poor & working class neighborhods in West Kensington & Fishtown, as well as the the effects of gentrification and I-95 on the Northern Liberties. Dr. Anderson's account is concise and balanced. It is unfortunate that the book does not remain true to it's original premise of examining the issues of the neighborhoods along the entire length of G'Town avenue.
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