UI Press | J. S. Fuerst, with the assistance of D. Bradford Hunt | When Public Housing Was Paradise: Building Community in Chicago

When Public Housing Was Paradise

Building Community in Chicago

True tales of public housing's possibilities from the people who lived and worked there

Collecting seventy-nine oral histories from former public housing residents and staff, J. S. Fuerst's When Public Housing Was Paradise is a powerful testament to the fact that well-designed, well-managed low-rent housing has worked, as well as a demonstration of how it could be made to work again.

J. S. Fuerst has been involved with public housing in Chicago for more than half a century. He retired from Loyola University, where he was a professor of social welfare policy. He was the editor of Public Housing in Europe and America. D. Bradford Hunt is an assistant professor of social science at Roosevelt University. John Hope Franklin is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University. He has served as president of the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and many more.

"Jim Fuerst, who was there at the moment of creation, has put together a marvelous book. It is a collage of memories of those who recall the beauty that was there and the something bleak that has been manufactured. This work is full of heroes. It should be must-reading, especially for young journalists who seek the truth of what we patronizingly call 'the inner city.'"--Studs Terkel

"Fuerst lets inhabitants and former-inhabitants of public housing tell their story, and much of it is a positive story about which we do not often hear or read. This deserves telling, and I can think of no one better prepared to tell it."--John Hope Franklin, director of Clinton's National Initiative on Race

J.S. Fuerst has been involved with public housing in Chicago for more than half a century. He retired from Loyola University, where he was a professor of social welfare policy. He was the editor of Public Housing in Europe and America. D. Bradford Hunt is an assistant professor of social science at Roosevelt University.

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