019 - ASA Rose Series Author Meets Critics Session. The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood (Russell Sage Foundation, 2014) by Karl L. Alexander, Doris Entwisle, and Linda S. Olson

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

West Baltimore stands out in the popular imagination as the quintessential “inner city”—gritty, run-down, and marred by drugs and gang violence. Indeed, with the collapse of manufacturing jobs in the 1970s, the area experienced a rapid onset of poverty and high unemployment, with few public resources available to alleviate economic distress. But in stark contrast to the image of a perpetual “urban underclass” depicted in television by shows like The Wire, sociologists Karl Alexander, Doris Entwisle, and Linda Olson present a more nuanced portrait of Baltimore’s inner city residents that employs important new research on the significance of early-life opportunities available to low-income populations. The Long Shadow focuses on children who grew up in west Baltimore neighborhoods and others like them throughout the city, tracing how their early lives in the inner city have affected their long-term well-being. Although research for this book was conducted in Baltimore, the experience of Baltimore’s children who came of age during this era is mirrored in the experiences of urban children across the nation.

For 25 years, the authors of The Long Shadow tracked the life progress of a group of almost 800 predominantly low-income Baltimore school children through the Beginning School Study Youth Panel (BSSYP). Combining these groundbreaking data with original interviews with Baltimore families, teachers, and other community members, The Long Shadow unravels the complex connections between socioeconomic origins and socioeconomic destinations to reveal a startling and much-needed examination of who succeeds and why.

Sub Unit

• Author Meets Critics

Session Organizer

• Lee Clarke, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers

Authors

• Karl Alexander, Johns Hopkins University

• Doris R. Entwisle, Johns Hopkins University

• Linda S. Olson, Johns Hopkins University

Presider

• Lee Clarke, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers

Critics

• Prudence L. Carter, Stanford University

• Adam Gamoran, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Glen H. Elder, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill