Black American street life : south Philadelphia, 1969-1971 /

Rose is a white anthropologist from the Midwest who studied the everyday lives of a small group of black men and women in a poor area of South Philadelphia. His research owes much to the pioneering work of W.E.B. DuBois, whose classic The Philadelphia Negro (1899) described the very same part of town as it existed almost a century ago. It is also very much in the tradition of such well-known participant-observers as William Foote Whyte (Street Corner Society, 1943), Elliot Liebow (Tally's Corner, 1967), and Ulf Hannerz (Soulside, CH, Sep '70). Rose calls their approach (and his) ``Reflexive Anthropology.'' The technique involves journeying deeply into one's own social, political, and national space. Rose reports on his mission with a candor and unabashed openness (some would say naivete) that is, in many ways, a return to the early days of cultural anthropology. The author lets his readers see everything he sees and feel his reactions to the various experiences he has. The book's strength is also its weakness. The narrative, nonanalytical style is most appealing, but many who read it will wish that Rose had attempted to go beyond his highly impressionistic presentation to offer some explanations for the manners and mores he described. Rose might also have compared his findings with those of fellow anthropologists such as Hannerz. Public and academic libraries, community college level up.-P.I. Rose, Smith College