The chapters cover all of the 'social problems' that impact urban life, from housing shortages (chapter 4) to immigrant integration in suburbs (chapter 25) to gentrification (chapter 10) to the decline in public schools (chapter 12). There is even a chapter on human trafficking (chapter 14). The editors include a study of post-Hurricane Katrina Lower Ninth Ward problems for low-income residents in New Orleans (chapter 29). . . .This social problems approach connected to the editors' interest in social justice drives this wide-ranging two volumes of mostly academic research on the ups and downs of the 20th-century urban U.S. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students in sociology and business; professional urban planners interested in understanding a wide array of urban social ills.

Choice Reviews

Poverty and inequality are areas sociology scholars have examined for generations, but these areas are still relatively unexplored by psychologists. These two volumes [Urban Ills Volume 1 and 2] are critical texts to help psychologists better situate individual psychological outcomes within micro and macro ecologies. Urban Ills clearly captures and describes the impact of economic globalization that benefits few but have consequences for many. . . .These two volumes provide readers with a context with which to understand and conceptualize the impact of urbanization within a global context. Globalization is sometimes solely equated with expanded opportunities and wealth, but in these two volumes, the authors puncture this myth: Globalization also means increased inequality, poverty, and marginalization. What the reader comes away with is a new appreciation for the complex relationship between these two perspectives, which is essentially the conundrum of global capitalism.

PsycCRITIQUES

Hurricane Katrina, mortgage foreclosures, racism, human trafficking, mass transit, HIV AIDS, gentrification, failing schools, and chronic unemployment are used to weave a complex, revealing tapestry that lays bare the ills of contemporary urbanization. We see 'Tales of Two Cities'—with the best and worst of times—repeated around the globe in the vast economic, social, and health disparities that separate rich from poor. A thoughtful, revealing study of how context, culture, and history combine to shape life chances in 21st century cities. Urban Ills: Twenty First Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts is destined to become a classic.

Walter R. Allen, University of California, Los Angeles, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Education