High Rise Stories

By Audrey Petty,

Book cover of High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing

Book description

In the gripping first-person accounts of High Rise Stories, former residents of Chicago's iconic public housing projects describe life in the now-demolished high-rises. These stories of community, displacement, and poverty in the wake of gentrification give voice to those who have long been ignored, but whose hopes and struggles exist…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked High Rise Stories as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is an extraordinary book: stories, in the voices of those who experienced it, about living in public housing projects in Chicago before these homes were demolished starting in the 1990s. Of course, there are memories of crime, gangs, drugs, violence, police brutality, sickness, and death: sometimes understood as the product of urban life, capitalism, and racism, but also as the product of individual mistakes and failures. But mostly these witnesses tell of community, of self-respect and determination, of learning to survive and even resist.

Students in my urban history class in a prison education program in Illinois reminded me…

From Mark's list on the modern history of cities.

Want books like High Rise Stories?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like High Rise Stories.

Browse books like High Rise Stories

Book cover of Spectacular Realities: Early Mass Culture in Fin-De-Siècle Paris
Book cover of City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London
Book cover of Reading Berlin 1900

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,188

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in buildings, Illinois, and Chicago?

Buildings 7 books
Illinois 86 books
Chicago 398 books