Introduction -- Black entrepreneurship from 1900 until 1935 -- Immigrant entrepreneurs: relations with customers in the early 20th century -- The fate of minority merchants during depression and war -- Government policy, ghettos, and merchant/customer conflict after WWII -- Demographic change and urban transformation: interactions between immigrant business owners and customers, 1970 to 2005 -- The informal economy as a site of competition between disadvantaged populations and ethnic merchants -- Ethnic merchants in a Black majority city: the case of Detroit -- Social inequality and merchant-customer conflicts
Summary
The Store in the Hood is a comprehensive study of conflicts between immigrant merchants and customers throughout the U.S. during the 20th century. From the lynchings of Sicilian immigrant merchants in the late 1800s, to the riots in L.A. following the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, to present-day Detroit, recurrent conflicts between immigrant business owners and their customers have disrupted the stability of American life. Devastating human lives, property and public order, these conflicts have been the subject of periodic investigations that are generally limited in sc