Root Shock

Praise

“This powerfully imaginative work by a leading social psychiatrist offers original ideas that sponsor not just a critique but ways to respond and prevent a major source of social and health problems in our time. A book of real importance.”
—ARTHUR KLEINMAN, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology,
Harvard University

“Root Shock examines the impact of urban renewal and community dismemberment on Americans—especially African Americans—and challenges us to respond. This could be one of the great books of our time!”
—DAVID SATCHER, M.D., Ph.D., director, National Center for Primary Care at
Morehouse School of Medicine

“Root Shock is a superbly written book, with a profoundly urgent message. In many ways the book is a mirror of the lost and lovely neighborhoods Mindy Fullilove brilliantly illuminates: courageous, powerful, and unforgettable. With Root Shock, Fullilove joins the ranks of William Julius Wilson, Melissa Faye Greene, Jonathan Kozol, and Barbara Ehrenreich—social critics who daringly shine a light on the neglected corners of the American Dream.”
—PATRIK HENRY BASS, author of In Our Own Image
and Like a Mighty Stream: The March on Washington, August 28, 1963

“An indispensable book that deals with human rights as they refer to the trauma that poor communities experience when the cynicism of social forces displaces them and destroys their communities.”
—HERBERT KOHL, Institute for Social Justice and Education,
author of 36 Children and “I Won’t Learn from You”

“Dr. Mindy Fullilove, one of the finest and most creative psychiatric intellects of our time, has outdone her previous seminal contributions on ‘place’ and ‘displacement’ by introducing us to the notion of ‘root shock.’ This wonderful, relevant, contextual text touts the importance of urbanization and how urban renewal shredded the social fabric that was a key component of mental wellness in African Americans.”
—CARL C. BELL, M.D., F.A.P.A., F.A.C. Psych.
President and CEO, Community Mental Health Council, and
professor of psychiatry and public health, University of Illinois

“The eradication of 1,600 African American communities, Fullilove compellingly contends, has done far-reaching damage to the emotional ecosystem of the entire United States.”
—LISE FUNDERBURG, author of Black, White, and Other



From the Hardcover edition.