What do you think?
Rate this book
All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community
"This landmark study debunked the misconception that poor families were unstable and disorganized. Here is the chronicle of a young white woman's sojourn into The Flats, an African-American ghetto comm"
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1973
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 29, 2016
I think Stack's study would have resonated with me more if I were positioned at a different vantage point. When I read books related to urban poverty, I want hard hitting insights and clear policy prescriptions. I got a bit of the former, but few of the latter. The conclusion could have been a bit more built out.
Of course, the book is dated and likely served as a good counter to the myopic work of Stack's contemporaries. She demonstrates that "ghettoes" are not marked by mere social disorder, but instead by highly organized kinship networks that pool their resources in order to best weather poverty's ill effects. This is an important observation. She also foreshadows Kathryn Edin's later work, "Promises I Can Keep," in her discussion of why economically marginalized women favor early child birth.
Last thoughts: this was a quick read that I was encouraged to pick up after completing "Random Family." I enjoy accounts that center low-income women of color.
Of course, the book is dated and likely served as a good counter to the myopic work of Stack's contemporaries. She demonstrates that "ghettoes" are not marked by mere social disorder, but instead by highly organized kinship networks that pool their resources in order to best weather poverty's ill effects. This is an important observation. She also foreshadows Kathryn Edin's later work, "Promises I Can Keep," in her discussion of why economically marginalized women favor early child birth.
Last thoughts: this was a quick read that I was encouraged to pick up after completing "Random Family." I enjoy accounts that center low-income women of color.
July 3, 2008
This book was responsible for literally changing the way that I viewed the problems of the poor in our country, and consequently my world view in general.
It's amazing how powerful it can be to simply listen to the voices of those that are struggling rather than to speak on their behalf in ignorance of the real issues they are facing. This book gives a voice to those people and a perspective that is too often ignored.
It's amazing how powerful it can be to simply listen to the voices of those that are struggling rather than to speak on their behalf in ignorance of the real issues they are facing. This book gives a voice to those people and a perspective that is too often ignored.
March 9, 2023
done with this book and freed from the shackles of my immersion journalism reading
June 20, 2012
Wow- this book single-handedly changed the way I view people based on their circumstances. Learning about inner-city poverty and the long lines of generational poverty is heartbreaking. It is a must read to learn about other people, and how multicultural aspects shape who a person is. Even 40 years later, we are still struggling with overcoming the same aspects Stack tried to conquer by doing this research. I feel more research needs to be done on this; specifically with no link to politics.
March 19, 2022
I enjoyed this far more than I expected too. Its cool to know that "institutionalized racism" as a phrase has been floating around since the 80s.
Read for class --- an excerpt from my response:
Carol Stack published "All Our Kin" in 1983, 18 years after the Moynihan report. Her book concludes three years of field research done in the 60s and seeks to investigate Black family dynamics, interrogating conclusions made about Black family life – that they are too matriarchal and "unstable."
She critiques previous scholarship for accepting "uncritically that poor black families are fatherless" and she explicitly problematizes the role of ethnogapher within her introduction (24). According to Stack, social scientists find it "often very difficualt [...] to comprehend the impact of instutional racism on black life" because of the distance between researcher and subject (xiv). Joyce Ladner, who Stack cites, says the trouble in scholarship comes from the unexamined "neo-colonial" relationship between researcher and subject; By ignoring their positionality as outsiders, social scientists hamper their understanding.
To gain a more truthful understanding of Black life, Stack's meathodolgy utilized a feminist intervention and embraced cultural relativism, concious of hiarchical structures. Eschewing traditional interviews, Stack used less-structured discussions to gather data and worked to immerse herself in her community of study. She additionally often explicitly references the relationship between herself and her subjects: "To many families I became another link in the systems of echanges" (20). Ultimately, through Stack's research, she concludes that Black urban communities are complexly organized adapted to the constrains of poverty. Instead of being "broken" or stuck in a "tangle of pathology," black communities are composed of "extensive networks of kin … that aid... survival in ... severe economic deprivation" (28).
Read for class --- an excerpt from my response:
Carol Stack published "All Our Kin" in 1983, 18 years after the Moynihan report. Her book concludes three years of field research done in the 60s and seeks to investigate Black family dynamics, interrogating conclusions made about Black family life – that they are too matriarchal and "unstable."
She critiques previous scholarship for accepting "uncritically that poor black families are fatherless" and she explicitly problematizes the role of ethnogapher within her introduction (24). According to Stack, social scientists find it "often very difficualt [...] to comprehend the impact of instutional racism on black life" because of the distance between researcher and subject (xiv). Joyce Ladner, who Stack cites, says the trouble in scholarship comes from the unexamined "neo-colonial" relationship between researcher and subject; By ignoring their positionality as outsiders, social scientists hamper their understanding.
To gain a more truthful understanding of Black life, Stack's meathodolgy utilized a feminist intervention and embraced cultural relativism, concious of hiarchical structures. Eschewing traditional interviews, Stack used less-structured discussions to gather data and worked to immerse herself in her community of study. She additionally often explicitly references the relationship between herself and her subjects: "To many families I became another link in the systems of echanges" (20). Ultimately, through Stack's research, she concludes that Black urban communities are complexly organized adapted to the constrains of poverty. Instead of being "broken" or stuck in a "tangle of pathology," black communities are composed of "extensive networks of kin … that aid... survival in ... severe economic deprivation" (28).
August 30, 2024
does an amazing job of defining the complex kin system of a “ghetto” that was previously characterized as disorganized/not worth studying in anthro. Carol Stack also writes her own experience while immersing herself in the community, which I enjoyed. It definitely comes across as a dated (70s anthro piece).
January 30, 2015
I read this for a sociology class when I was in my teens, and while I wasn't surprised by what I read here, I was moved. The instability of life in poverty-- and the punitive nature of the pre-Clinton asset restrictions for help-- is not a surprise; the idea that in poverty people end up relying on kin networks to survive isn't either. As an ethnography to introduce people to the notions of kin networks it's very helpful; but even for those who come from poverty or near-poverty, it's an eye-opening glimpse of those social networks actually work.
To what extent an outsider can and cannot reasonably describe the workings of a social system and the experiences of those within it is something the author and other authors of her generation and discipline have struggled with. There's always the danger of othering, as well as self-identifying, with the group you study.
As far as the data in the study is concerned, certain changes were made in anti-poverty programs in the Clinton administration, some of which were designed to remediate some problems identified here-- the punitive asset limits, the need to throw fathers out of the house in order to obtain assistance-- as well as adding a lifetime assistance limit (though many states have asked for and received waivers for it)... one would have to do some library research to see what changes, positive and negative, these things have imposed on social networks among the urban poor.
But it's still an excellent book.
FYI: found this article on Elliot Lebow and Carol Stack's work: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/...
To what extent an outsider can and cannot reasonably describe the workings of a social system and the experiences of those within it is something the author and other authors of her generation and discipline have struggled with. There's always the danger of othering, as well as self-identifying, with the group you study.
As far as the data in the study is concerned, certain changes were made in anti-poverty programs in the Clinton administration, some of which were designed to remediate some problems identified here-- the punitive asset limits, the need to throw fathers out of the house in order to obtain assistance-- as well as adding a lifetime assistance limit (though many states have asked for and received waivers for it)... one would have to do some library research to see what changes, positive and negative, these things have imposed on social networks among the urban poor.
But it's still an excellent book.
FYI: found this article on Elliot Lebow and Carol Stack's work: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/...
March 31, 2016
This book is an interesting take on urban poverty. I have always been curious about how people cope with issues related to extreme perpetual poverty and this book did not disappoint. Researched in the mid-60s and published in 1974, this was the first study to analyze "the adaptive strategies, resourcefulness, and resilience of urban families under conditions of perpetually poverty or the stability of their kin" (pg 22). I find this approach to be unique and necessary, I also like the a white middle-class woman was able to integrate herself into this culture given the intense racial tensions of the time. Up to this point, the majority of the research published analyzed urban black poverty from the white middle-class model thus creating stereotypes of these families that in reality are not accurate and are probably more stable than many of the white middle-class I have encountered. I enjoyed learning from the anthropologist's point of view and am always happy to learn information that corrects my misperceptions about others because as a white middle-class person I was misinformed. I also found myself wondering what this study would look like if it were conducted today. Have families continued to establish a kin-support network? Has the modernization of American Society changed their kin-networs and if so, in what ways? I recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about how urban black families cope with poverty.
June 7, 2014
Not great not terrible. Nothing in this book is mindblowing although granted it was published 40 years ago so maybe in the 70s this was groundbreaking stuff. I wished the author focused on one or two kin networks to discuss residential patterns, kin ownership of children, etc. I found myself getting lost about who was who and what relationships they had to each other. If there were less families used I think that would have helped comprehension of the subjects discussed. To me the most interesting discussions in the book centered on the forces acting on male and female relationships in The Flats and an attempt to explain reasons for high birth rates among the urban poor. One part I found interesting was when the author stated that when young women/girls had children they were given their own bed to sleep in with their child and were afforded a new identity. The conclusion also restated some interesting points for instance "survival demands the sacrifice of upward mobility and geographic movement, and discourages marriage". It got me thinking about how this constraint to survive has caused me to sacrifice and in what ways.
February 19, 2016
I'm torn with this book. Stack does an excellent job in describing the methods poor blacks have to surviving in their communities. Yet, I felt like she portrayed many of these people as extremely promiscuous. Yes, the larger society plans a huge role in keeping them in poverty, as Stack stated over and over again. BUT these habits they've formed for surviving in these urban areas are self-harming. They create an endless cycle that keeps groups in poverty. It's an excellent inside look at the state of black urban communities, but I just felt the image Stack indirectly gave these people was unnecessarily negative in some aspects.
September 11, 2011
This is a classic ethnography from the 70s of a poor black community in the Midwest. Not sure how I came to have it on my shelf but I was happy to find it- It's interesting to read about how the people in this community depend on each other in such structured ways. I also was really interested in the way children are valued and taken care of by whomever is able to care for them, so sometimes the grandparents or aunts or friends become the mothers/fathers- like they actually call themselves the mothers/fathers, not just caretakers or guardians, and that is considered normal and cool.
March 20, 2011
This book made some interesting insights into the experience of urban poverty but fell short of analysis into issues that, 40 years later, continue to plague communities across the country. The author has succeeded in illuminating these issues, giving voices to people whose plight is not typically talked about or heard, as well as shattering some stereotypes about family structure in black communities.
May 27, 2018
Amazing and in depth sociological study of poor neighborhoods and their networks of family and community support. Shows how outside forces- prejudice, policy and employers work in concert to perpetuate poverty, and how people helping each other also keep those same people in place. This is a often cited work in areas of policy, social work, race relations, etc and a really captivating read. The stories were so accessible.
July 1, 2018
I had the pleasure of meeting Carol at one point, and she is definitely a super sweet lady (and she herself noted that she was a bit more of a rebel at the time of writing this book). Ah, how things change. Nevertheless, her voice really shines through in this book and it's a key insight into the nature of race relations and poverty in our country (even if it's a few decades old and things have somewhat changed or not changed since then).
July 7, 2013
This ethnography is the feminist answer to the 1965 Moynihan Report in which Moynihan "blames the victim" for creating a culture of poverty. Stack demonstrates the complex and strategic ways that Black women in "the Flats" took care of their families, fictive and otherwise, while coping with poverty in the early 1970s. A classic!
April 16, 2016
20130121 For Social Anthropology 3400 (core requirement), Winter Q 2013.
Quick read (especially after Malinowski). Really dated. Pales in comparison to a more detailed and sophisticated study like "Unequal Childhoods". I'll be interested to discover the instructor's motivation for assigning it to this class.
Quick read (especially after Malinowski). Really dated. Pales in comparison to a more detailed and sophisticated study like "Unequal Childhoods". I'll be interested to discover the instructor's motivation for assigning it to this class.
February 22, 2017
I mainly skimmed this for school but I thought this ethnography was very interesting. Stack's project is structured very well and she spends a good amount of time diving into the science of her work so that is feels much more sound than many other ethnographic works. I'd really recommend this to anyone looking for a piece on poverty.
Want to read
December 30, 2007I started reading this for Feminist Methodologies in graduate school, some day I want to finish it.
July 18, 2008
One of my favorite reads of all time. This book opened my eyes to poverty and the difficulties that come with being poor in a new way. Short, quick read . .. highly recommended.
July 28, 2011
Great book though in twenty years of owning it I still haven't made it all the way through.
September 12, 2016
Study of the importance of families and networking.
September 22, 2015
a really interesting read on coping with poverty by those who live in it.
January 2, 2016
This book is a classic in my field. Given my area of expertise and work, there is nothing better than sitting down to re-read the classics every now and again!
May 6, 2020
I read this book probably more than a decade ago in graduate school, recently stumbled upon a cheap copy at a used book store, and decided to revisit it. This is a classic, and explores how poverty and the social welfare state shape dependent interpersonal relationships and constrain independence in a poor urban black community. It counters a lot of stereotypes, and clarifies the roots of behaviors that the middle class mainstream often doesn't understand. Clearly in the more than half century since this research was conducted a lot of things have changed, particularly the structure of social welfare benefits themselves, but it is still an interesting book.
September 26, 2021
Though dated, Stack provides a deep look into the lives of the residents of The Flats. She tried to use as few stereotypes as possible and often deconstructs them for the purpose of showing real, American life.
August 12, 2022
it’s dated and didn’t leave me with any major takeaways, but her analysis of kin relationships and caregiving is interesting
March 5, 2023
really interesting insight, especially because it’s about northern champaign
April 24, 2024
Ethnography of poor midwestern blacks in like the '60s. outdated but interesting.
Would reccomend to anthropologists.
Would reccomend to anthropologists.
July 28, 2019
Brilliant!
December 1, 2020
Very awkward and outdated.....
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews