Pathways to Manhood

In Pathways to Manhood, published in cloth as Strategic Styles: Coping in the Inner City, Janet Mancini Billson studies five young boys who grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, during the intense racial and political turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using data from Harvard's Pathways to Identity project, she analyzes how healthy ego striving develops in the social and physical decay of an inner-city environment. The author draws a rich and absorbing portrait of each boy and of his life. Although they grew up in the same social context, the boys became very different individuals. In a new preface to this expanded edition, Billson maintains that it is still vitally important to understand the coping styles that young black males develop in the face of adversity. Bernard E. Bruce traces what happened to the five boys, who are now men in their forties, in his poignant epilogue, "From Boys to Men". A new chapter on intervention strategies shows how parents, teachers, and others who work with inner-city youth can most effectively support positive coping styles. Graphic representations help visualize both the styles and the intervention strategies. This classic book is a valued resource for parents; for those who work in the helping professions, education, and the criminal justice system; and for students of sociological theory, social psychology, human development and race relations.