Sugrue

I agree with everyone else that making this a case study strengthened his book. I thought he made strong arguments and was able to back them up with many examples. His discussion on the housing situation in the first part of the book I found to be very interesting and I really enjoyed how he included the stories of different people's experiences with the housing situation. He also worked in different angles and perspectives from William Burton, the greedy landlord who overcharged his tenants for rent (54), to Charles Johnson, the WWII veteran who returned looking for housing but kept getting denied (58). Because it was a history focused on one city, it was more interesting for me to read. There was more specificity with his arguments and examples as opposed to a national history where it'd be a little more general. I found it interesting his idea of a "spatial definition" of blacks and whites determined by the differences of living situations as well as how race was both political as it was social (9). Furthermore, the idea of homeownership representing identity that he discusses on 213 was something I never thought about. However it does make sense that owning a house would represent success since, as he explains, "homeownership required a significant financial sacrifice". In addition, this helped explain why African Americans were having trouble living in certain neighborhoods. Overall, I found it to be a very good read.