Artist

Sudhir Venkatesh has written extensively about American shadow economies and is an award-winning author of three books: Gang Leader for a Day; Off the Books: the Underground Economy of the Urban Poor; and The American Project: the Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto. All three of these books focus on Chicago’s urban poor and examine the creative ways people find to survive, including taking the law into their own hands. Venkatesh’s writings and stories have also appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Slate, National Public Radio, This American Life, WIRED and The Washington Post.