Venkatesh's subjects include women who clean houses and prepare lunches for the local hospital, small-scale entrepreneurs (like the mechanic who works in an alley), a preacher who provides mediation services to the salon owner who rents her store out for gambling parties; street vendors hawking socks and incense, drug dealers and extortion gangs.
Their stories show us how this underground economy has become the economic backbone of an American ghetto.
Venkatesh, who has been with Columbia for six years, has also made a short feature film, hoping that a full-length feature film could come out of it. Last month Slate.com chose his book as one of the best books of 2006.
Were you not scared, especially during your first visits to the poorest parts of Chicago?
I was threatened a few times, caught in a few gun battles, and my car was shot at, but there was no way to prepare for this.
Naivety was my counsel: I was so unaware that I didn't really have time to be scared. And, thankfully, I had plenty of people watching over me.
Photograph: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
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