"A brilliant and necessary account of the word 'gentrification.' In this smart, nuanced, and engaging book, Brown-Saracino masterfully weaves together scholarship, cultural objects, and narrative to reveal how it has come to mean so much and so little all at once. Readers will never use the word again without reconsidering its power, complexity, and ambiguity." --Jackelyn Hwang, Stanford University "Brown-Saracino bravely takes us on a personal journey through the past half century of social, cultural, and economic change, showing that gentrification is not just an urban problem but an existential anxiety about losing the connection between community, identity, and place." --Sharon Zukin, author of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places "This superb book addresses the critical question of what gentrification even means today now that it is mainstream and used in reference to seemingly quite different processes, practices, and events. For Japonica Brown-Saracino, it is a communication device that has new life beyond its literal meaning, made possible through its ongoing association with the urban and change. This is one of the most important books to come out in gentrification studies for some time and will no doubt be a landmark work." --Loretta Lees, coauthor of Planetary Gentrification "Brown-Saracino expands our understanding of the term 'gentrification' and the social transformations it describes.

Her gravitas and authority will move our thinking forward." --Mignon R. Moore, author of Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships, and Motherhood Among Black Women " The Death and Life of Gentrification is a timely, necessary, and magnificent history of how the idea of gentrification became mainstream. Brown-Saracino takes us from the halls of academic discourse to the front pages of The New York Times , from gentrification-as-self-improvement to gentrification-as-a-just-so-story about the state of everything around us. Filled with important messages and things to learn, this book is destined to become a classic." --Clayton Childress, author of Under the Cover: The Creation, Production, and Reception of a Novel.