In THE COSMOPOLITAN CANOPY: Race and Civility in Everyday Life [W.W. Norton], Elijah Anderson illuminates the public life of an American city, offering a major reinterpretation of the racial dynamics in America. Anderson takes us back to Philadelphia, exploring pockets of civility he calls “cosmopolitan canopies” – the urban islands free of racial tensions that exist amidst the ghettos, suburbs and ethnic enclaves where segregation is the norm.

Elijah Anderson is the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Sociology at Yale University. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The New York Times Book Review.