Devin Finbarr recently addressed the decline of Detroit and other cities by suggesting some reading:
The Slaughter of the Cities, Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism, Bridging the River of Hatred. Banfield is also a great source, and his books are free online. Check out the chapter in The Unheavenly City, “Rioting mainly for fun and profit”.
I followed the link and came across these Banfield-isms:
- “Do no good and no harm will come of it.”
- “Those who cannot learn cannot be taught; those who can learn don’t need to be taught.”
- “If you don’t want people to find out about something, don’t do it.”
- “Social scientists should never try to predict the future; they have trouble enough predicting the past.”
- “A Unitarian is a lapsed Christian. I’m a lapsed Unitarian.”
The preface to The Unheavenly City opens with these words:
This book will probably strike many readers as the work of an ill-tempered and mean-spirited fellow.