Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women

by Elliot Liebow

Overview

"One of the very best things ever written about homeless people in the nation."—Jonathan Kozol.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140241372
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/01/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.71(h) x 0.86(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Elliot Liebow was a celebrated anthropologist and sociologist, best known for his books Tally's Corner and Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women. A graduate of George Washington University, the University of Maryland, and Catholic University, Liebow served for many years at the National Institute of Mental Health as chief of the Center for the Study of Work and Mental Health, followed by a period spent volunteering at a homeless shelter for women. In 1990, he was appointed to the Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle Professorship at Catholic University's National Catholic School for Social Service, a position he held until his death in 1994.Liebow received numerous awards and honors in his lifetime. Among others, they include the National Alliance to End Homelessness's John W. Macy Award, the President's Medal of the Catholic University of America, and the Lee Founders Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Table of Contents

Preface: A Soft Beginning
Introduction: The Women, the Shelters, and the Round of Life

PART ONE: Problems in Living
1. Day by Day
2. Work and Jobs
3. Family
4. The Servers and the Served

PART TWO: Making It: Body and Soul
5. My Friends, My God, Myself
6. Making It Together
7. Some Thoughts on Homelessness

Appendixes
A. Where Are They Now?
B. Life Histories
C. How Many Homeless People?
D. Social Service Programs
E. Research Methods and Writing

Bibliography
Index of Names

Editorial Reviews

In 1984 Ellet Liebow, an urban anthroplogist and author of Tally's Corner, an earlier work on Black streetcorner life, left his job at the National Institute of Mental Health and began volunteering at The Refuge, an emergency shelter for homeless women. Elliot became increasingly drawn to these women, spending more and more time in it and other shelters, making notes and getting to know the inhabitants. This book is is the result. Unveiling the problems inherent in the current system of providing for the homeless is only part of the dynamic at work here. Tell Them Who I Am gives real voice to these women and theie stories. They are clearly human beings, and Elliot does nothing to strip them of their dignity or humanity. If any criticism could be made I suppose it might to suggest that Elliot is too close to his subjects. Perhaps this is an apt counter to most of the distancing, impartial-observer accounts of the homeless common to social science texts. There is no feelings of these women as bugs under a microscope. We see their world, as we should, through their eyes.
—Ilene Rosoff

WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women