Cop in the Hood: Being a professor is a better job

Cop in the Hood

Winner of the 2008 PROSE Award for Best Book in Sociology

Buy Cop in the Hood from Amazon.com

Never mind "The Wire." Here is the real thing. --The Wall Street Journal

Cop in the Hood is an explosive insider’s story of what it is really like to be a police officer on the front lines of the war on drugs. Harvard-trained sociologist Peter Moskos became a cop in Baltimore’s roughest neighborhood, the location for the HBO drama The Wire. He provides an unforgettable window into a world outsiders never see. Those who read it will never view the badge the same way.

December 31, 2009

Being a professor is a better job

"Most days I don't miss being a cop; being a professor is a better job." And so begins the thrilling story of Cop in the Hood.

Providing further evidence in support of this hypothesis, I'll be on vacation for the next three weeks in Thailand and Bali.

Happy New Year!

And of all nights to stay safe, tonight is the big one. Please don't get hit by any bullets, falling or otherwise.

2 comments:

jeff said...: Enjoy! We should meet after you get back. Happy New Year!!!; December 31, 2009 10:31 PM
CPM said...: NICE, while I'm two feet of snow and cold!; January 6, 2010 4:44 PM

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Critical Acclaim for Cop in the Hood

Read the full reviews here.

"Galloping Prose!"
—Milt Rosenberg

"Truly excellent.... Mandatory reading for all fans of The Wire and recommended for everyone else."
—Tyler Cowen

"Riveting.... An unsparing boys-in-blue procedural that succeeds on its own plentiful—and wonderfully sympathetic—merits."
—The Atlantic

"Never mind 'The Wire.' Here is the real thing."
—The Wall Street Journal

"Engaging as well as persuasive."
—Baltimore Sun

“Thoughtful, highly entertaining record of ... one of the country’s toughest urban districts."
—George Pelecanos

"Hard-edged sociological analysis.... A devastating critique of America’s failed war on drugs."
—Orlando Patterson

"An imaginative ethnography, unvonventional is style and purpose. ... A close and moving description of big city policing."
—Peter K. Manning

"[A] riveting tale of policing.... A must read."
—Sudhir Venkatesh

"It gives the reader the real dope.... Highly recommended."
—Alex Tabarrok

"An extremely valuable study.... His insights are eye-opening."
—Jim Leitzel

"[An] adrenaline-accelerating night ride that reveals the stark realities of law enforcement."
—Publishers Weekly

"Genuinely eye-opening.... A compelling account."
—Times Higher Education

"[An] objective, incisive and intelligent account of police work. Moskos's graphic descriptions of the drug culture... are the most detailed and analytical to be found anywhere.
—Arnold Ages, Jewish Post & Opinion

"Scrupulously researched."
—(Baltimore) City Paper

"Moskos is a good man; he's up to the job."
—Dan Baum, author of Nine Lives.

"Riveting"
—Monica J. Massey, ACJS Today

"Should be made mandatory reading for every recruit in the Balto. City Police Academy. ... I am so proud that you were a Baltimore Police Officer and a good one."
—Colonel (ret.) Margaret Patton, Baltimore City Police Department

"I just finished reading the last footnote! Great stuff."
—NYPD Lt. Detective (ret.) David Durk

Moskos strips away hard to decipher copspeak and sociological mumbo jumbo and presents something easily digestible by the average reader.
—Pepper Spray Me

Recommended for...insights into law enforcement and, in a nerdier vein, how participant observation can inform social science.
—The Monkey Cage

Sorta like a non-fiction Joseph Wambaugh for the new millennium.
—IrishPirate.

For anyone interested is what being a police officer in Baltimore City is really like, Peter Moskos' in-depth, academic, and realist account in Cop in the Hood is a must-read. . . . enlightening and authoritative.
—Sean O'Donnell, Baltimore Republican Examiner

"Just garbage! ... Who does he think he is telling me what to do?"
—My former boss, convicted felon Ed Norris

Read the full reviews here.

Buy Cop in the Hood

Past Events:

The ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change Conference. "The Wire as Social Science Fiction?" 26-27 November 2009. Leeds Town Hall.

Coversations with Carlos Watson. MSNBC. August 19, 2009

The Ron Smith Show. WBAL (Baltimore). August 18, 2009.

The John Brown Show. KTRS (St. Louis). August 18, 2009

The C4 Show. WBAL. August 3, 2009.

Century of Lies with Dean Becker. KPFT. June 29, 2009.

Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg. WGN Radio in Chicago. June 19, 2009.

"The Law-Enforcement Perspective." Safe Injection Facilities of New York Conference. John Jay College. May 22, 2009.

Killadelphia: A Panel Discussion. April 29, 2009. Part of the Gerald W. Lynch Theater’s Art of Justice Series: Integrating the Arts & Issues of Justice.

Cornell University Center for the Study of Inequality Colloquium Series. Monday, April 13, 2009. Ithaca, NY.

Northwestern University. Department of Sociology Colloquium Series. April 16, 2009.

University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. April 8, 2009.

Yale Urban Ethnography Project mini-conference, "The Urban Ghetto: Then and Now." Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting. Baltimore MD. Friday, March 20, 2009.

SUNY Stony Brook. LEAP. February 12, 2009.

New York University. February 10, 2009.

Brown University. SSDP. February 10, 2009.

Philoctetes Society Roundtable. "Aggression." NYC. February 7, 2009.

University of Pennsylvania Urban Ethnography Workshop. February 6, 2009.

Harm Reduction Coalition. 22 W. 27th St 5th Floor. NYC. January 29, 2009. 6pm.

New York Academy of Medicine. "Harm Reduction." January 23, 2009.

Princeton Club of Northern California (PCNC)
December 30, 2008.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy Annual Conference. College Park, MD. November 21-23.

Luncheon Society. October 29. Morton's Steak House, Manhattan.

Non-Motivational Speaker Series. Happy Ending, 302 Broome St., Manhattan. October 23, 2008.

CUNY TV (Channel 75 in NYC)
October 15, October 19, 2008

CUNY Graduate Program in Anthropology Colloquia Series (open to the CUNY community). October 17, 2008.

The "World Famous Phil Hendrie Show." Sep 30/Oct 1, 2008.

Baltimore Highlandtown Library. September 27, 2008.

Baltimore Book Festival. Radical Bookfair Pavilion. September 27, 2008.

Baltimore Book Festival. Literary Salon. September 27, 2008.

“The Wire: Drugs, Prison and Community Survival.” John Jay College. September 25, 2008.

Goldstock Criminal Law Luncheon. NYU. September 9, 2008.

CUNY radio. Book Beat Podcast. August 22, 2008.

Cultural Baggage. KPFT. August 20, 2008.

Kicking the Anthill. KLUP. August 16, 2008.

WYPR (Baltimore Public Radio) Mid-Day with Dan Rodricks. August 11th, 2008.

The Ron Smith show. WBAL (Baltimore). August 11, 2008.

The Mike Malloy Show. July 30, 2008.

The Ed Norris Show. FM Talk 105.7 (Baltimore). July 29, 2008

The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC (New York). July 22, 2008.

The Ron Smith show. Tuesday, June 17. Baltimore's WBAL, AM 1090. Listen to interview.

New York Press Club panel discussion. Tuesday, June 3rd - Covering High-Profile Police Shootings

The Ron Smith show. Tuesday, May 13, on Baltimore's WBAL. Listen to interview.

Wednesday May 7. A panel discussion of Cop in the Hood. With Joseph Poss (Brooklyn Bounce). John Jay College. Details.

Wednesday April 30: National Public Radio's "On Point" with Tom Ashbrook.

Tuesday April 29: National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation."

Thursday April 14: bloggingheads.tv online interview.

Reading for Randy Cohen's New York Times Magazine column, "The Ethicist for 04/04/2008 ."

Cop in the Hood

December 31, 2009

Being a professor is a better job

2 comments:

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