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Talk:Ghetto

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Informative
This ia informative

And help the world would kNow about the facts

It needs to be productive even more — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.168.204.89 (talk) 07:30, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

this article is Intellectually dishonest
look at the photo of two black guys about one-third down the page. That pic could have been anywhere in the US-- replaced by whites, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, NAmericans, Pacifics, or Anybody Else. Many US cities looked like that in 1970s. CorvetteZ51 (talk) 10:42, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

POV
This is badly written and POV. For instance saying a supermarket is denying access to blacks sounds like there is a supermarket there but not letting black people in while letting whites in. This is not what the reference says. The reference says supermarkets are choosing not to build in black neighborhoods. This is different, sure it's discriminitory but it's not the same as saying they aren't letting blacks through the door. Which is the tone this article is written in 63.26.116.200 (talk) 06:40, 19 December 2008 (UTC)Petra

'hiBold text'I am not really sure about when the ghetto gates were closed from the inside or the outside. -- Davidme
 * This help?
 * Gates were to be erected in two places, and locked at sunset (not midnight as sometimes erroneously asserted) and only opened again at sunrise, with a substantial fine levied against any Jew caught outside after hours. The Christian inhabitants of the ghetto were required to vacate their premises, and as an incentive for landlords to comply, the Jews were required to pay them a rent one-third higher than that previously paid, with that increase exempt from taxation. [| University of Maryland]. DavidP 12:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't see the relationship from iron foundry to ghetto. I thought that the etimology was from (bor)ghetto (small city-quarter). -- Davidme
 * who ever said Iron? foundries are needed for bronze, brass and almost all metals - Ghetto as a word meaning 'cast' or extruded still survives in the word Spaghetti a form of pasta that is made in a way similar to the extrusion of metal. DavidP 12:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Or Draghetti, because dragons extrude fire. Seriously, spaghetto is the diminutive of spago, which translates into string. 68.65.161.172 (talk) 22:08, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

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Etymology of "Ghetto"
The claim that the word "ghetto" comes from the Italian "getto, gettare" is erroneous. The term does originate in Venice, and is related to the operations of a foundry on the island, but derives instead from a noun and adjective "ghetta", meaning slags, itself from the Latin adjective glittus (sticky, soft). The term refers to the part of the island (campo ghetto < CAMPU[M] GL&012C;TTU[M]) where the slags were cooled. Had the term been related to the Italian "gettare" (VL *JECTARE = CL JACTARE, cfr. E-JECTARE), then we would expect the Venetian to be "zeto". The term was later interpreted as being related to the Hebrew word for the bill of divorce, "get" (גט), but this is a later bilingual paronomasia on the Venetian word. In Venetian, "gheto" ; Italian "ghetto ; Latinized form (in Papal documents regarding the "serraglio delli hebrei" in Rome, first in 1555 in an edict of Pius IV, and again in 1562 when the name of the "serraglio" was officially changed) "ghectus".

See:

Jan 12, 2018 02:34 — Steve Staubach: I would like to add to the conjecture; that perhaps the term ghetto used in a negative context may also have originated from the term "Larghetto", which is used to describe playing classical movements (music) at a fairly slower pace. That is to say that the term may have been used to describe lower class people or their lives in the eyes of the aristocracy pervading Europe during the Renaissance.

Ariel Toaff, "Getto - Ghetto," The American Sephardi 6:1/2 (1973): 71-77.

Sandra Debenedetti-Stow, The etymology of “ghetto”: new evidence from Rome, Jewish History, Volume 6, Issue 1 - 2, Mar 1992, Pages 79 - 85, DOI 10.1007/BF01695211, URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01695211.

--Jerchower 17:42, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Someone inserted the following into my talk. The comment is NOT mine, and the information in it is utterly spurious. Jerchower 12:21, 27 February 2007 (UTC):

My Ghetoo GOSPEL! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.181.31.61 (talk) 01:54, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

"as i understand the ghetto is acording to jewish law where jew should live and want to live, they live in ghettos as the did since the begining of talmudic law and perhaps before. jews are following talmudic law when they live in ghettos. in bablon they lived in ghettos out of personal choice and safty and not due to being forced by non-jewish peoples. anyone knowlable in talmudic law can prove this and cite sources. "

As someone who has studied Talmud for nigh on two decades I can indeed confirm that this statement is absolute nonsense. It is a typical instance of attacking the victim for their victimhood. 4Tildes  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.125.143.178 (talk) 19:17, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

 * This etymology is the original work of one linguist 'Sandra Debenedetti-Stow'. it is based on a fragment found in rome that purports to represent the inhabitants ideas of how the name arose, long after it did.  Debenedetti-Snow's journal has been called 'creative' and her assertions are not at all mainstream. It is far more likely that the etymology represented on this page is erroneous.
 * 'The word ghetto is of Venetian rather than of Jewish origin, as has sometimes been conjectured. It is encountered in Venetian sources from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and today it is generally presumed that the word derives from the Italian verb gettare (to pour or to cast), because of the previous presence of foundries in the area.' [| from Benjamin C.I. Ravid, "From Geographical Realia to Historiographical Symbol: The Odyssey of the Word Ghetto"].
 * Personally I think that 'slag' is an unlikely source of the word, mainly because prior to the industrialisation of smelting the quantities of slag, produced as a by-product of smelting, would be too small to require two whole blocks of land specifically for cooling it (there were two ghettos; the ghetto nuovo and the ghetto vecchio), especially when you are surrounded by water (why not just pour it into the water) in a reclaimed island in lagoon where all land is precious. Further more it is highly unlikely that Venice would be smelting ore at all, it would make no sense using the city to produce raw materials when you have an empire to do that for you. the foundries or ghettos in Venice would be for casting, probably bronze, a process that produces very little slag indeed.
 * For a more informative view that would be worth reading for many aspects of this article (and one you can read without buying the journal) take a look at [| The University of Maryland article based primarily on B. Ravid, "The Religious, Economic and Social Background and Context of the Establishment of the Ghetti of Venice," in Gli Ebrei e Venezia, ed. G. Cozzi (Venice, 1987), 211-59] DavidP 12:15, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I would like to note that the Hebrew/Yiddish origin of the word is explicitly disclaimed in the source provided for it. "This etymology is indefensible from a phonetic point of view and from almost every other. The Hebrew-Yiddish search for the origin of ghetto should be abandoned." https://blog.oup.com/2009/03/ghetto/ which is the source for the NPR article, "In his etymology column for the Oxford University Press, Anatoly Liberman took a look at each of these possibilities." https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/27/306829915/segregated-from-its-history-how-ghetto-lost-its-meaning, (link to Anatoly Liberman's blog contained in the NPR article). 4Tildes — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.125.143.178 (talk) 19:16, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

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Etymology of "hood"
What is the etymology of the slang term "hood" for ghetto? Jimw338 (talk) 17:22, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

 * I always assumed it was short for "neighborhood". Willondon (talk) 20:28, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

The Jewish community and the Word "Ghetto"
A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background live as a group in seclusion, voluntarily or involuntarily... "Ghetto" is also used figuratively to indicate geographic areas with a concentration of any type of person (e.g. gay ghetto, student ghetto) or for non-geographic categories You don't mention that the word "ghetto" has an extremely negative connotation in the Jewish community today, and although the word ghetto can be used to describe almost any grouping of people, referring to a predominantly Jewish neighborhood where the residents live by choice as a "ghetto" is a racial slur. I'd add a sentence after the last one I quoted saying that for historical reasons referring to Jewish neighborhoods as "ghettos" is highly offensive.

Some take offense at the current causal use of the word "ghetto" because they feel it is downplays how ghetto's were used as an instrument of genocide during the holocaust. For that reason using the word causally and/or in highly formal context is politically incorrect and potentially offensive.

Some Links: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005059 http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/ghettos.htm Why the hell does holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/ trigger you spam filter?

"as i understand the ghetto is acording to jewish law where jew should live and want to live, they live in ghettos as the did since the begining of talmudic law and perhaps before. jews are following talmudic law when they live in ghettos. in bablon they lived in ghettos out of personal choice and safty and not due to being forced by non-jewish peoples." Using the word ghetto in this context is antisemitic. Saying that the Jews like to live near each other and near Synagogues is one thing, but saying "Jews should want to live in the ghettos" is something else all together. This statement is making excuses for the Holocaust. This quote is a perfect example of how referring to Jewish neighborhoods as "ghettos" is a racial slur. --Absolute Relativity 08:50, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

In somewhat more recent times, ghettos appeared primarily in the Western part of Tsarist Russia, in the so called Pale of Jewish settlement. Since Jews couldn't acquire land outside the ghetto, during periods of population growth, ghettos had narrow streets and tall, crowded houses. Residents had their own justice system. Around the ghetto stood walls that during pogroms were closed from the inside during Easter Week and from the outside during Christmas or Pesach. Often ghetto residents had to have a pass to go outside of the bounds of the ghetto.

For me it is complete nonsense. Closed from outside Ghettos never existed in Eastern Europe before Nazis.

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Figurative use
Ghetto is also used figuratively, and for areas that are anything but poverty struck (cf usage in Speculative fiction, Gay ghetto). Any reason not to indicate this in the first paragraph?

E.g. The term ghetto is also used in a more figurative way to indicate areas and ideas that are excluded from the mainstream, such as Gay ghetto, or Sci-fi ghetto (see speculative fiction). If this seems to be denigrating the real ghettos, could add: Such usage may actually make some people more comfortable with the word, by distancing it from real, current, deprivation. Notinasnaid 09:12, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC) The ghetto is most commonly knon as a lower class area of a rural city

I live in da ghetto and it ain't dat bad.just a few gangs and slang.but look,if you got to my userpage and read it you see i'm still smart.I'm just say in...-- Cute 1 4 u 20:45, 17 July 2006 (UTC) hello

"Ghetto is also used figuratively, and for areas that are anything but poverty struck" No, it can't be used that way. "Student ghetto" is one thing, because students are often poor, and sometimes live in concentrated area's with substandard living conditions. The word "ghetto" as it is used in American culture was originally derived from the ghettos of the holocaust, and given the oppression of Blacks in the US at the time, I don't object to that use of the word. Given the bloody origin of this word, it is not, and cannot be, used to describe any ethnic neighborhood. A better definition of "ghetto" would allow the residents of a community to define their community as such, if they were unhappy there and unable to leave for whatever reason (be it legal, economic, social, etc.)

Referring to affluent minority communities as "ghettos" implies the deprivation is inherent in the minority group who lives there, making such use of term highly offensive. This is especially true in the case of a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, where the word "ghetto" has a very powerful negative connotation, and such a statement could be interrupted as wishing harm on the area in question (because the residents of Jewish ghettos were systematically murdered).

--Absolute Relativity 00:32, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Faulty reasoning, needs clarification
Because African-Americans of all economic levels had to live in these neighborhoods, such as Bronzeville in Chicago and Harlem in New York City, they often became known as vibrant cultural centers

the article needs clarification to indicate that black ghettos, became vibrant cultural centers because great artists lived there ( Nina Simone <3, John Lee Hooker -- boom, boom, boom --, Proffesor Longhair -- gumbo anyone? -- three artists that come most easily in mind) and not because a bunch of black people where stuck living there... Come on, it's like saying "Ghettos produce artists". Not NPOV. The article needs to reflect on the dates that this cultural flurishment happened.

[TODO] 'pedia "Harlem", "Detroit", "New Orleans", check out the dates where their ghettos flurished and then set this article straight. (did/does the 'awleans have a ghetto? - i'm putting it on the list cuz some of my most favorite jazz artists come from there.) Project2501a 11:17, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * It's often said that great art is born out of suffering. So it isn't necessarily a coincidence that great artists live in the ghetto. Perhaps "ghettos produce artists" in the same way that other crowded, poverty stricken, areas have done (e.g. late 19th century Paris). (No I haven't read the original statements). Low property prices and tolerant neighbours can also influence whether people are able to gather in "cultural centres". Notinasnaid 12:01, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * point taken, but still, that doesn't negate the "minstrel" implication or the "go to the nigger hood, cuz they's gonna entaintain you" feeling of the wording. So, I changed the wording. let me know if you agree. thanks :) Project2501a 15:04, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I added a whole section noting that african-american ghettos were often vibrant cultural centers Project2501a 15:28, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Faulty reasoning (2): out-of-bedlock

 * Its opponents point out that in the 1970s, when the real amounts of welfare checks decreased, out-of-wedlock births increased. Murray also missed the fact that although the percentage of blacks born out of wedlock increased in the 60s and 70s, the percentage of black women having babies out of wedlock decreased.
 * On the contrary, these facts actually support the theory.
 * since the welfare checks decreased, more babies were to be born to get the same money.
 * percentage: Again the same. This shows that while less new women were encouraged to be indecent, those who already abused the system were encouraged (or forced) to abuse it even more (I vouch for "forced", since already having children decreased odds to find a job). Mikkalai 00:08, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * This is a very interesting perspective. The line of argument I used to criticize Murray came from the books "The Truly Disadvantaged" and "The Promised Land."  I will move the reasoning that you consider faulty to the section on William Julius Wilson, as well as add the fact that the illegitimacy rate increased in low benefit states like Mississippi just as much as it did in high benefit states like Ill and NY.

 * Personally, I think that Waldinger's theory deserves to be better known. In "The Promised Land" Nicholas Lemann points out that both Murray and Wilson have one thing in common in that neither "blames the victim."  user:dinopup

"something blacks have not been able to do"
(concerning [this reversion http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ghetto&diff=19466622&oldid=19462838]): ''Waldinger argues that immigrant groups benefit by establishing nepotistic niches for themselves, and use niches for mutual help, something blacks have not been able to do. ''

Whether or not each of us believes that blacks are "able" or "unable" or "willing" or "unwilling" to create and use niches, the point here is that Waldinger asserts they are unable to do so. The article isn't saying one way or another, it's just reporting what Waldinger said. FreplySpang (talk) 21:43, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

 * Is that a quote by Waldinger? If so, it should be in quotations, if not, the editor is simply projecting their beliefs onto a descriription of Waldinger's work.  Show where Waldinger specifically said "not been able."   "Not been able" is a racist statement. Furthermore, the following line in the paragraph: " In contrast, unskilled northern-born blacks, who hope to do something better than their parents, disdain these jobs, in hope of something better, and may often wind up working outside the legitimate economy altogether." further point out my opinion that this is a willing choice, not something which they are "unable" to do.  I believe that the quote above shows that Waldinger means unwilling.
 * I read Waldinger before I knew of wikipedia, or else I would have used a direct quotation from him. I do recall that Waldinger writes more than one chapter about economic niching of Koreans, Indians, Jews, etc. as a contrast to African-Americans.  Waldinger writes about how blacks used to be prominent in the catering business, so I think that the wikipedia article correctly summarizes Waldinger's theory. Dinopup 01:37, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure how it could be interpreted as some sort of racialist "fundamentally unable" statement. In context, the phrase "have not be able to do" means something like "have not managed to do", as in "I would like to visit China someday, but so far I have been unable to do so" (which does not imply that I am fundamentally incapable of visiting China). --Delirium 12:42, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Unsubstantiated claim?
The below paragraph has five claims that should be backed up by statistics:
 * "Losing Ground has met with a broad chorus of liberal criticism. Losing Ground's opponents point out that [1] in the 1970s, when the real amounts of welfare checks decreased, out-of-wedlock births increased. Critics also point out that [2] illegitimacy rose just as much in low benefit states like Mississippi, where [3] work undoubtedly paid better than welfare, as [4] it did in high benefit states like Illinois and New York. Critics also say that Murry missed the fact that although the [5] percentage of blacks born out of wedlock increased in the 60s and 70s, the percentage of black women having babies out of wedlock decreased.

The claims should be footnoted or this paragraph should be removed or altered to clarify it is merely a POV and not fact.--CrazyTalk 18:33, August 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * The information came from The Promised Land by N. Lemann. I'll get a citation up within a few hours. Dinopup 19:32, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Piotrkow was the first ghetto
It was organised in October 1939, according to deathcamps.org/occupation/piotrkow%20ghetto.html

Xx236 14:02, 10 February 2006 (UTC) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Above information on first ghetto incorrect.

First Ghetto
The first ghetto

The Hebrews first came to Egypt to escape a famine. According to the Torah, they were harbored by Joseph, who became Prime Minister to Pharaoh because of his interpretation of dreams.

They were granted their own state in the fat land of Goshen, north of Thebes.

Later, their fortunes fell with the overthrow of the Hyksos kings around the 14th century BCE. Goshen became a ghetto ... the world's first. The Hebrews slowly descended into slavery, as "there arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph."

Alot of Graffiti
Something about west London appears to be on this page alot, is there wa way to revert it back to a saved version without all the graffiti?

Slums for Jews
The article blithely exclaims that the Irish were the first so-called "ethnic group" to form ghettoes in the United States of America, but that statement is a falsehood. Jews preceded Irishmen by many decades. Jews moved into older parts of cities, replacing the earlier (English) settlers. Boston, Massachusetts, New York, New York, and other cities were places where Jews established the earliest ghettoes in North America. 71.240.82.223 04:34, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

It is not OK to refer to Jewish neighborhoods as ghettos in this context. Nor were these neighborhoods slums. Talking about Jewish "ghettos" in this manner is about as offensive and careless using the N word interchangeably with Black or African-American. It is condonation of violence and racism in one of the worst imaginable ways, and should not be tolerated by decent people. --Absolute Relativity 08:50, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Ghettos aren't limited to where Black-Americans and European Jews live, because ghettos are segregated ethnic or racial communities. What about barrios where the main ethnic groups are Hispanic? These are ethnic enclaves often depicted as old, slummy, overcrowded, buildings close-together, aging bungalow homes and entire shopping districts sale Hispanic goods to Spanish-speaking clientele (the storefront signs in Spanish). Ghettos can be residential areas where only Hispanics or east Asians in the U.S. and Asian Indians or Gypsies in the U.K. live due to arriving in a new land, sought a similar cultural identity and lower-income status to only rent or live in lower-cost residential tracts: i.e. Lower East Side or Harlem in New York city. + 71.102.2.206 (talk) 12:21, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

"neutrality of this article is disputed" total BS
When a moderator places this stamp on an article, what purpose does it serve? The blacks in the US section should be removed completely and locked from the user(s) that added it. When newbies visit Wikipedia, they still read these biased articles and believe all its contents despite that dumb "neutrality of this article...". Find other methods to keep Wikipedia neither left or right. Panda

 * The NPOV tag is placed to call attention to the presence of bias presenting itself as fact. To me, it's a heads-up that I should be skeptical. I can't speak for others, but it does work, at least for me. The specific tag in question was placed incorrectly (in the middle of an article, in the middle of a sentence even), but I've fixed that. There needs to be some explanation as to why it was placed there, however. I agree that a NPOV tag placed without an explanation on the talk page is practically useless. (missed explanation above) Regardless, the best method "to keep Wikipedia neither left or right" is to be bold and make the changes needed, making sure to explain why. -kotra 02:22, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming, although it's not altogether clear to me, that you are angry about the use of the term 'black' when referring to "African Americans". If that is the case, I would like to point out several things. First, I have yet to meet a case of some "black" person being offended by being called "black". Also, that the use of the term 'African American' is highly deceiving because most of the people referred to as "African Americans" are as "African" in their idiology, society, history and even (in many cases) ethnicity as they are "Asian". The majority "African American" communities were imported to the southern states as slaves and have been in America and have been integrating into American culture since then (approximately a hundred-fifty years). They no longer have any traces of African religion, custom, culture, ideology or behavior, in fact, I have been told that many naturalized "African Americans" positively dislike freshly immigrated Africans. Besides this, the "African Americans" were imported from vastly different tribal and geographic backgrounds thus making them form an entirely new culture all their own. For all these reasons they nor many of 'us' think of them as being African at all. The fact is, their only major distinguishing characteristic is that they are 'black', this is what they call themselves and what they are called by those who realize that it not only does not offend them, but is etymologically more accurate. Therefore, I think it is permissable and would be more accurate to replace all occurences of "African American" with "black". (Sir Tristram 22:15, 14 March 2007 (UTC))

strange... their african heritage seems pretty evident to me. it comes through in their music/singing/dance/rhythm, their language ("ebonics"), in their relation to family (extended family in particular), and in their relation to religion. you are assuming that because they aren't practicing the yoruba religion there is no connection with africa outside of the obvious (race). that's wrong. it's still there.

some AA's resent africans because of their success.

besides why is the label 'african american' such a big problem for everyone?

A deficiency in the term "African American" is that the term does not apply to many who could truly be called African-Americans. AA is popularly used to refer to black-African Americans, and does not apply to Arabs and other races/cultures that have lived in Africa for thousands of years. for example, an Egyptian immigrant could not be considered "African American", even though he or she has much closer ties to the continent of Africa than most African Americans. I wouldn't say black is better, but it's a bit more honest. When we say "African American", we are not talking about a group of people from a particular continent, we are talking about skin color, and facial features. They are both labels and they are both flawed; I neither prefer nor abhor either term. 207.122.168.88 22:19, 24 July 2007 (UTC)MCHouse (not registered)

"I'm assuming, although it's not altogether clear to me, that you are angry about the use of the term 'Black' when referring to 'African Americans'. If that is the case, I would like to point out several things. First, I have yet to meet a case of some 'Black' person being offended by being called 'Black'. Also, that the use of the term 'African American' is highly deceiving because most of the people referred to as 'African Americans' are as 'African' in their idiology, society, history and even (in many cases) ethnicity as they are 'Asian'." I second that. A lot of my Black friends take offense at the term "African-American" because it implies they are 1st generation immigrants, not descended from families who lived here for generations. I believe one of by Black friends told me (paraphrasing) "I'm not African-American; Teresa Heinz-Kerry is African-American, I'm just Black, I don't have anything more to do with Africa than any white American does. The only thing that makes me different from anybody else is the color of my skin, and that's exactly what it should be called." Since then I've taken his advice and tried to use the word Black over African-American when addressing racial issues.

Category:Ghettos
I am suprised such a category does not exist yet?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 18:44, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

ghettos survive by liberalism, not racism
im sure racism caused ghettos to form in america. today, racism we know it has declined when colleges have lowered entrance exam standards for black students and job hiring practices made it easy for blacks to get work. then most white peeple i observe dont like to say 'ghetto' or dont wanna talk bout issues like this, cuz the p-c agenda will call them racists or bigots. im one of the 'evil conservative' types, but i always not care much on what race or color a person is. ghettos survive today by race baitin politics, the rap hip hop culture glamorizes failure & poverty, when these rap singers in contracts made 'bling bling' leave the ghetto. what kind of world we have any one can sing poorly & write songs full of cursing, drug use & objectifies women? it promotes a negative sense of self & young black kids listen to it thinking they are low lifes? im offended, are you? ghettos are here not by legal restricted home tracts, its been illegal to segregate homes since the 1960s. ghettos are where welfare dependents are addicted to small cash pay ments, goes up when a single mother has another baby. im sure it teach them to go get pregnant & dont go to school/find a job that has more benefits for her & the children. im amazed teens from ghettos are poorly brought up. i own a business that i look for new hires & i wish to give them a chance in life. but they dress in gang attire & speak bad english. they cant conduct themselves properly in interviews. in most cases they arent interested in work. i worry the country's public schools are so bad (thanx to liberal mismanagement & 'new math', 'ebonics courses' or 'revised history') they dont graduate or their diplomas are cheapened after promoted to a new grade while they failed. we've as a country lowered standards to create a underclass, plus the hip-hop culture tells em 'blacks dont go to college' or what their peers tell em. it makes me mad, but im not black and not poor, but a working white man 45 years old, who knew blacks in my school i got along with and back then, poor blacks or whites or whoever wanted to graduated & get a great job. what happened? liberalism & moral decline, get welfare & you be treated/cared of alright. no more welfare states. no more race politics. and encourage young people in economic challenged homes to study, work hard, plan for goals, integrate well & not beg for others. dont use race or class to determine their lifes are bad over the distant past. but tell them the future is great & our country has a better economy than ever. i believe all races of americans (i call them american first) have the same dreams & abilities, no need to use race or color to label or divide for political purposes, any liberals know of this work well? cities fail from bad city politics, economic restrictions (costs), mismanagement of communities, & high tax rates to pay for social welfare states. i dont pay for failure to breed or grow ghettos, i pay for growth & wana teach the future not get stuck on this p-c lib hip-hop black power baloney. - signed, open-minded conservative.

whites live in ghettos too. and hiphop dosent glamorize poverty. where did u get that. they glamorize what happen after the got out of the poverty but never the poverty.

 * I am very much in agreement with the author above, I just want to add this thought: This nation has had a long history of the desperate poor entering.They've all met bigotry and got by.Unless we believe blacks and hispanics to be inferior to the earlier arrivals, the only differance I can see is the new Deal.Traditionaly, employers, when deciding on a location wrestle between the the advantages of the poor area, low wages and those of a beter assimulated area, lower crime and end up going with the poorer area. What we've done, by federal labor law, is abolish incentive to locate in the ghettos becouse operation costs will be the same everywhere, and by judicial activism, aplified the dicincentive, the high-crime area is always the worst hit by criminal rights. More directly, anti-discrimination laws hurt only those bussinesses who opperate in minority areas. One never hires someone who's harder to fire.

Yeah cus this isnt racist what so ever???

Isn't the talk page for discussion about the article itself, and not about personal views on the topic of the article? 162.136.192.1 16:43, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, what kind of racist moron posted "Ghettos survive liberalism not racism"?

That comment contains nothing but a list of baseless stereotypes.

No wonder the article is locked. --Absolute Relativity 08:50, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Dang. I guess Tucker Carlson couldn't figure out how to sign his rant. At least the OP recognizes that his/her/their views are evil and unsupported by history, facts, objectivity... His/her/its mastery of the English language and grammar certainly does much to convince us that this is a well thought out and researched post. I am just surprised there is no link to "Birth of a Nation" included as a source. 4Tildes

Ghetto music
I removed this sentence, which had its own section created called "Trivia".

"- Ghetto-themed songs have been created by several singers, such as Busta Rhymes, and Alicia Keys."

Is there another place we could put this? Thor Rudebeck 07:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Talking about the music that's been developed in lower income African American communities, it's origins (slave songs, to Jazz, etc.), and saying something about the underground music scene, as well as gospel and Soul music would be a good idea.

Which ghetto??
The sentence
 * From its creation in 1462, until its dissolution at the end of the 18th century, the city council limited expansion in the Judengasse, resulting in steadily increasing overcrowding.

at the beginning of the section 13th–19th centuries makes no sense to me. Which ghetto was created in 1462, and which city limited its expansion?? - Austrian 23:49, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Early Ghettos
We should talk about early "isolated" Jewish communities For instance, Philo writing in the 1st century mentions that Jews in Alexandria, Egypt were forced out of the majority of the city by mobs into a small portion of one quarter.

P.S. When a page is protected, isn't there supposed to be a text box that says so?

151.197.28.239 19:26, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Hooverville
Do you think Hooverville could be added to this article? Socialism20091011 (talk) 06:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Post-World War II France
There is erroneous usage of the term Muslim in this section as expemplified in the following excerpted sentence.

 * ..."The poorer banlieues, or suburbs, of France, especially those of Paris, house an impoverished population largely of North African Muslim and Black African origin in large medium- and high-rise building developments known as "Cités"...

As one can see, not only does the sentence need re-structuring as well as editing, but the term Muslim is used to describe North African populations in a way deemed to differentiate them from "sub-Saharan" populations. The term Muslim is not exclusive or synonymous with just Arabs, but includes a wide array of ethnic groups and racial demographies. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of these "Black African" populations, concentrated in these Parisian ghettos are generally of Saharan/Sahelian origin, from countries like the Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, or Niger, in other words, they are from countries that are significantly (if not wholly) Muslim in backgroud (in regards to religion). Please remove the word Muslim from the sentence, it is seriously pissing me off. Thank You - Jalopenio.

Villeurbanne a ghetto ? this article may confond with Venissieux. Minato ku 19:56, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Revert
Reverted large deletion by User:Vitund as no edit summary and no explanation given on talk page --carelesshx talk 21:16, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Chinatowns
Um... have these been called Ghettos in any sources? If so we need to cite them. Otherwise, I think we should move the info about Chinatowns. futurebird 22:19, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Just a Thought
I was just reading over this article and found that the term Blacks was used frequently. Should this be changed to something a little more PC? Just a thought... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.40.204.246 (talk) 00:51, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

An Answer
Black is as PC as you can get. Referring to people who have dark skin and whose families have lived in the US for generations as "African-American" implies they are first generation immigrants, or somehow less American than Caucasians. The word "Black" describes the only real difference between us, and that is the color of our skin. Caucasians are referred to as "White" although they aren't perfectly white, so it is silly to say using the term "Black" implies Black people's skin is perfectly black. Absolute Relativity (talk) 03:41, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

 * To call someone "black" is about they have a darker skin color near to the black hue and "African-American" is to denote they are of African ancestry, but the two terms can be inflammable and offensive when used in negative manner or to denigrate someone because of their race. "Black" became a self-title of choice in the 1960's an English translation for the Latin term "Negro" and an informal "colored" both are considered archaic or unpopular since the 1970's. Followed by "African-American" first proposed by US Supreme court justice Thurgood Marshall and then popularized by Civil rights Leader Rev. Jesse Jackson to identify themselves rather a minor ethnic group the same way we heard of "Irish-Americans", "Italian-Americans" and other hyphenated nationalities who are Americans first or born in the USA, and indeed was the term of choice in the 1990's when "black" was going back to unfavored status. In the year 2009, a "person of color" will decide whether or not he/she wants to be referred to or self-identify themselves as black, colored, Negro, African-American, etc. except the new trend is to be only "American" without any hyphenation or simply as "people" without discrimination of what skin color they are or what continent their ancestors came from. + 71.102.2.206 (talk) 12:09, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

the Moynihan Report
I'm having a hard time working this in to the flow of the section. If the report is so old and if it is:

" the most refuted document in American history "

Why do we even cite it? It adds no information except to say that Moynihan thought black neighborhoods were "messed up" ... or something... I have better and more recent sources. So, I'm going to remove it. futurebird 19:46, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

how is royston a ghetto ^o) check south central la fur a ghetto :-|:-@ —Preceding unsigned comment added by SexayyFash (talk • contribs) 13:10, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Why is this not included
Okay, everyone knows that in the 90's crips and bloods expanded into Canada. Now Canada doesnt have as much as the US but deffinitly more then the UK. So why isnt it included. I can find references and pictures every where of Ghetto's in Ontario, Manitoba, BC & Nova Scotia. Just look up Toronto Ghetto's, Vancouver Ghetto's. It's all on the net. Cities in Canada have low income neighbourhoods with drugs, gun violence, gangs. As far as crips and bloods, they are only in Southern Ontario and Northern Manitoba. But there are ghetto's across Canada. You can find Halifax ghetto's. If you go on youtube and type in real toronto. There are multiple videos showing the low income neighbourhoods in toronto and the videos show gangs dealing drugs, selling guns, carrying guns, shooting guns, scenes before they commit homocides. I think Canada deserves to be in this article! I can find tons of references to back this up!

Thank you whoever posted that info up! I didn;t think i would have been able to post the info myself, All i knew were rescources and experiences. Thanks dude, you did an excellent job. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.96.85.49 (talk) 22:28, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow! Whoever deleted the Canadian section is freaggin selfless. People don't thank that Canadians suffer, that we dont have to put up with living in low income neighbourhoods with the gun violence, unemployment and welfare checks, the drug dealers. Well whover thinks that can back the hell off cuz we do have those kinds neighbourhoods and quite a bit of em. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.96.85.49 (talk) 06:04, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Oi canada idiot there's ghetto's all over the world that are a lot worser than Canada by a mile there's ghettoe's in the UK that are a lot worser than Canada in places like London and Birmingham in the UK but they don't boast about it because it's a nasty place but you seem to be bigging it up so someone ban this canadian waste guy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.188.152.18 (talk) 19:07, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Bot report : Found duplicate references !
In the last revision I edited, I found duplicate named references, i.e. references sharing the same name, but not having the same content. Please check them, as I am not able to fix them automatically :) DumZiBoT (talk) 13:52, 8 August 2008 (UTC)
 * "Keating" :
 * http://books.google.com/books?id=O0bnHQAACAAJ The Suburban Racial Dilemma: Housing and Neighborhoods] By William Dennis Keating. Temple University Press. 1994. ISBN 1566391474
 * The Suburban Racial Dilemma: Housing and Neighborhoods By William Dennis Keating. Temple University Press. 1994. ISBN 1566391474
 * "Glaeser" :
 * ''Ghettos: The Changing Consequences of Ethnic Isolation

Oi canada idiot there's ghetto's all over the world that are a lot worser than Canada by a mile there's ghettoe's in the UK that are a lot worser than Canada in places like London and Birmingham in the UK but they don't boast about it because it's a nasty place but you seem to be bigging it up so someone ban this canadian waste guy.

Jewish Ghettos during WWII
The article states that during the WWII Jewish ghettos were established. It is quite wrong. The ghettos were there, but not fenced or walled. During WWII the Germans simply built a wall that surrounded pre-war Jewish quaters in Warsaw as the Jews rarely mixed/assimiliated with the local population and preferred to live voluntarily in their own communities before the war. Some other Jews were collected from small villages and other places around Warsaw and were transported to this walled ghetto later during the war. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.34.140.197 (talk) 01:31, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * This is simply incorrect. Sections of the city, usually in or near industrial zones, were selected and Jewish residents from the cities were forcibly relocated. My own family, living in Budapest, were forced from their apartment near the Dohany Street Synagogue and forced into the ghetto. In some instances the Jewish quarter of a ghetto was cordoned off, but in many others that was not the case. 4Tildes 208.125.143.178 (talk) 19:38, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

Ghetto - the modern use
This article need to expand on the modern use of the word "ghetto". --cooljuno411 07:04, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes. In modern slang it seems to kind of mean "low class" without so much about race. Borock (talk) 16:24, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

The fourth 'voluntary' way to form a ghetto
I recall hearing that a jewish area in north London had asked to become a 'restricted religious enclave' or something equivalent to this so that local rules by-laws etc could be superceded within the area in favour of ?Judaic ?Talmudic law for specific times eg Sabbaths. This sounds like asking for the formation of a ghetto. Salisbury9986.160.136.146 (talk) 17:43, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I suspect you mean the erection of a eruv - it's a Jewish ritual thing, nothing to do with civil law and doesn't actually alter the demographics of the place (although you'd need a fairly high percentage of practising Jews in the area for anyone to bother proposing an eruv in the first place). 62.196.17.197 (talk) 12:30, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Rural ghettos
Smaller towns or communities in rural states like Kansas, Alabama, eastern Kentucky and Central California are reported to have "ghetto" characteristics. Indian reservations in the U.S. are another example for a certain racial group (Native Americans) to live apart from the white majority. Both urban and rural ghettos are economically isolated, but the rural kind are geographically isolated from main economic job centers and/or involved declining low-wage job bases like agriculture in the cases of the Black Belt of Mississippi; Yakima Valley, Washington and Standing Rock, South Dakota. These areas are notorious for having America's highest unemployment rates, welfare receipency/dependency for entire families on the rolls, and lower life spans due to poor medical care available there. + 71.102.2.206 (talk) 12:25, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

What does this mean?
There is a section titled "post-war" which says: "After World War II, many emigrated to the United States and Israel. With the cold war progressing, industry was spread across the major cities and work assignments were given out." Is it talking about the Soviet Union and other communist countries? Is it saying that since work assignments were given out Jews left the ghettoes? It needs to be more clear. Thanks. Borock (talk) 16:18, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

The Intro
I tried to do some work on the Intro. I feel that is sounds better now. Firstman692002 <

Hyperghetto
Wacquant's definition of the hyperghetto is a historical demarcation in quality (not simply intensity) from its prior form - the communal ghetto. this part of the article should distinguish the historical differences in terms of the changing class composition of the ghetto (ie the exit of middle and upper class blacks and the "Negro Aristocracy"(Dubois), the connected destruction of locally owned businesses and community organizations, the shift from a surplus labor pool for industry to a redundant labor force trapped in the ghetto, and the roll-out of the penal state, which all qualitatively changed the FUNCTION and FORM of the ghetto. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Christoph.herring (talk • contribs) 18:10, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

intro
does not conform to standard american usage, circa 2011; ghetto has taken on themeaning of uncultured or boorish, possibly synonomous with white trash In any event, where are the citations (or whatever passes for a citation to printed material in teh electronic age ??) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.236.121.54 (talk) 17:50, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

United Kingdom section
Clearly, for a city district to qualify as a "ghetto" it needs to meet the criteria stated in the introduction:

''...an overcrowded urban area often associated with specific ethnic or racial populations living below the poverty line. Crime rates in ghettoes are typically higher...''

The latter part of the Great Britain section

"only two wards in England and Wales, both in Birmingham, had one dominant non-white ... Newham and Brent - had 'minority majority' ... The Savile Town area of Dewsbury was described as"

simply lists, in sensationalist Daily Mail fashion, regions with a significant proportion of 'non-white' residents, without elaborating on why these regions should be considered ghettos. Nor do the citations, which again, only give ethnic statistics.

The implicit assumptions seem sinister and discriminatory.

--Tshloab (talk) 22:50, 28 October 2012 (UTC)
 * May relate to indiscriminate or lay use of the term - basing it on the late state US model of a poverty and crime riddled ethnic minority inhabited slum area as opposed to the traditional or strict sociological criteria. Misuse of technical terms in popular discourse is nothing new and "implicit assumptions" may well be in the eye of the beholder. 62.196.17.197 (talk) 12:34, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Cleaning up worst unsourced WP:OR
Just came by to clean up one example and was amazed at all the others. Going to remove a few more of the most obviously unsourced and POV/offensive sections. Please follow wikipedia policy on WP:Verifiability! Thanks. CarolMooreDC 🗽 18:42, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Organisation and layout
The article seems to me to be a bit of a mess, both in overall layout, and the structure of particular sections (particularly the bit about African American ghettos, which is a huge wall of text that needs dividing into appropriately titled subsections). I don't know enough about the subjects to do anything about the latter, but for teh former, I'd suggest rearranging as follows:
 * 1) Historic (medieval) Jewish ghettos should go first, as that was the original meaning of the term
 * 2) Nazi-era Jewish ghettos next
 * 3) US ghettos, and US use of the term, as (judging by the amount of text) this appears to be the most significant meaning of ghetto after the first two.
 * 4) ghettos in other countries
 * 5) Other uses of the term

Iapetus (talk) 17:46, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Inaccurate
Ghetto is not a generic term.

It is always about the Jews in Italy. This whole article is overblown. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.12.252.229 (talk) 18:34, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

 * Meriam Webstbers dictionary would disagree with you.  Dig deeper talk 01:34, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

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Definition
Websters has a third definition that is not given much attention in the lead: a : an isolated group (eg. a geriatric ghetto) b: a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity(eg the pink-collar ghetto) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghetto  Dig deeper talk 01:35, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

Misleading information
The article give the impression that Ghettos started in Venice: In fact it is only the name that comes from their. There were ghettoes in Germany much earlier, see Frankfurter Judengasse.

In 1215 the 4th Lateran council decreed that Jews weren't allowed to work in official social and occupational groups such as guilds and had to wear specific recognizable clothes. This is common to the whole Jewish people in old Europe. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.31.101.46 (talk) 18:26, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

"In the hood" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect In the hood. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 February 18 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Un assiolo (talk) 19:18, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

Ghetto before Ghettos
I really like what this wiki page has to offer, but I feel like there are a couple of things that would make it a little more informative. There are a few things in specific I would like to add from “Creating the Black Ghetto: Black Residential Patterns Before and During the Great Migration.” by John R. Logan, et al. The points I would like to add are in the section of “Black or African American ghettos” in the second and third paragraphs. The first one is to mention how "ghettos" were a thing way before the word was coined and this is mentioned in the article, African Americans were living in their own neighborhoods since 1880 (32). The next point is how when people moved north and west during The Great Migration that things were not just good right away and they still went through discrimination, shown in the article, when mentioning Chicago bombings in the article in 1920, after the migration started (32). John R. Logan is credible as he is a professor at Brown University. On top of this, he is well known for his research on racial segregation in the US. He also won the Distinguished Scholarly Book Award in 1990. Altogether these additions would only add a few more sentences. If anyone wants to comment on these changes, please let me know on this Talk Page or on my Talk Page. RyanMakarem (talk) 17:33, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Luciano
Luciano 2409:4053:2C9F:567E:0:0:420A:B711 (talk) 14:29, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

 * b1 =
 * b2 =
 * b3 =
 * b4 =
 * b5 =
 * b6 =

Definition is backwards
The article claims that ghettos are areas where visible minorities live, which happen to be impoverished (second order effect). I would argue pretty strongly that ghettos are areas where the impoverished live, which unfortunately happen to include a high percentage of visible minorities. This distinction is important, especially when seeking socioeconomic solutions. 2605:59C8:22A8:E210:0:0:0:4BE (talk) 23:47, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ghetto


text:
John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham

John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts simply as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor General and high commissioner of British North America. A leading reformer, Durham played a major role in the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. He later served as ambassador to Russia. He was a founding member and chairman of the New Zealand Company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. George Woodcock says that he was, "Proud, wayward, immensely rich, with romantic good looks and an explosive temper." He was one of those "natural rebels who turn their rebellious energies to constructive purposes. Both at home and abroad he became a powerful exponent of the early nineteenth-century liberal spirit."

Background and education
Lambton was born 12 April 1792 in the house of his father William Henry Lambton at 14 Berkeley Square in St George Hanover Square (now within the City of Westminster). His mother was Lady Anne Barbara Frances, daughter of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey. Lambton was christened with the names of his grandfathers, John Lambton and George Villiers. In the time of Lambton's birth, his father was taking active part in the formation and chairing of the Society of the Friends of the People.

After attending Eton he joined the army in 1809 as a cornet in the 10th Hussars, but resigned in 1811. Following his father's death in 1797, Durham had inherited an immense fortune, derived largely from mining on lands surrounding Lambton Castle, the ancestral family home in County Durham, which formed the basis of Lambton Collieries. Other properties in County Durham included Dinsdale Park and Low Dinsdale Manor.. In 1821, he earned the epithet "Jog Along Jack" after being asked what he considered an adequate income for an English gentleman and replying that "a man might jog along comfortably enough on £40,000 a year" (equivalent to approximately £3,900,000 at 2014 values)

He supported educational projects such as the Mechanics' Institutes and the newly founded University of London.

New Zealand
In 1825 Lambton took the chairmanship of the New Zealand Company, a venture that made the first attempt to colonise New Zealand, with his interest being philanthropic. However the venture did not succeed at colonisation.

Political career
Durham was first elected to Parliament for County Durham in the general election of 1812, a seat he held until 1828, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham. In Parliament he supported liberal causes, from the defence of Queen Caroline to the removal of political disabilities on Dissenters and Roman Catholics. When his father-in-law Lord Grey became prime minister in 1830, Durham was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Privy Seal. Along with Lord Russell he was a leading promoter of reform. He helped draft the famous Reform Bill of 1832. It reformed the electoral system by abolishing tiny districts, gave representation to cities, gave the vote to small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers and to householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more and some lodgers.

Lord Durham resigned from cabinet in 1833. Later the same year he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Lambton and Earl of Durham. Between 1835 and 1837, he served as Ambassador to Russia. While in Russia, he was invested as a Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, of the Order of St. Andrew and of the Order of St. Anna. In 1837, he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

Canada
In 1838, Lord Durham was named Governor General and High Commissioner for British North America (several North American colonies administered collectively by the Colonial Office, including: the Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Bermuda). A main task set for him was to investigate the political situation there after the Rebellions of 1837 in Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) and recommendations as to necessary reforms.

He and his longtime colleague Edward Gibbon Wakefield arrived in Lower Canada on 29 May 1838. One of his tasks as governor general was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Lower Canada Rebellion of Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Upper Canada Rebellion of William Lyon Mackenzie, which had occurred in 1837. His decisions with regard to the Rebellion prisoners encountered stiff opposition at Westminster. He lost the support of the Prime Minister, Melbourne, whereupon he published his repudiation and resignation 9 October 1838 and set sail for London on 1 November.

Durham's detailed and famous Report on the Affairs of British North America (London, January 1839) recommended a modified form of responsible government and a legislative union of Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces in order to assimilate the French Canadians, whom he considered inferior.

Lord Durham has been lauded in Canadian history for his recommendation to introduce responsible government. However, the British government did not accept that recommendation. It took 10 more years before a responsible parliament was established in the colonies. (Colonial legislatures had existed in the two Canadas since 1791 but were toothless compared to appointed colonial administrators). Lord Durham is less well regarded for recommending the union of Upper and Lower Canada, which resulted in the creation of the united Province of Canada.

As early as 1844, Lord Durham's intended policy of assimilation faced setbacks, as Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine's party in the House managed to force de facto re-establishment of French as a language of Parliament. Once responsible government was achieved (1848), French Canadians in Canada East succeeded by voting as a bloc in ensuring that they were powerfully represented in any cabinet, especially as the politics of Canada West was highly factional. The resulting deadlock between Canada East and West led to a movement for federal rather than unitary government, which resulted in the creation of confederation, a federal state known as the Dominion of Canada, incorporating New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and dividing the United Canadas into two provinces, Ontario (Canada West) and Quebec (Canada East), in 1867.

Family
Lord Durham was twice married. He fell in love with Harriet, the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Cholmondeley, but then aged under 21 and refused the required permission by his guardians to marry her, they married at Gretna Green on 1 January 1812, then in an Anglican ceremony at her father's estate of Malpas, Cheshire, on 28 January that year. They had three daughters, who all predeceased him:

 * Lady Frances Charlotte (16 October 1812 – 18 December 1835), married the Hon. John Ponsonby (later 5th Earl of Bessborough), but died a few months later of consumption.
 * The Hon. Georgiana Sarah Elizabeth (2 March 1814 – 3 January 1833)
 * The Hon. Harriet Caroline (30 May 1815 – 12 June 1832)

After Harriet's death in July 1815, he married secondly Lady Louisa Grey, daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, on 9 December 1816 at Lord Grey's estate, Howick, Northumberland. She was an amateur artist. They had two sons and three daughters:

 * The Hon. Charles William (16 January 1818 – 24 September 1831) – see The Red Boy
 * Lady Mary Louisa (8 May 1819 – 9 March 1898), married James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin
 * Lady Emily Augusta (17 May 1823 – 2 November 1886), married Henry Cavendish, son of the Hon. Henry Cavendish
 * The Hon. George Frederick D'Arcy (5 September 1828 – 27 November 1879), later 2nd Earl of Durham
 * Lady Alice Anne Caroline (16 April 1831 – 15 January 1907), married Sholto Douglas, Lord Aberdour (later 18th Earl of Morton)

Lord Durham died at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in July 1840, aged 48, and was buried at St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street. He was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son, George. The Countess of Durham only survived her husband by a year and died aged 44 on 26 November 1841 at Genoa from a serious cold.

In literature
In one of her occasional political forays, Letitia Elizabeth Landon in her poetical illustration to Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait, 'The Right Honourable Lord Durham. Now on an Embassy at the Court of Russia' in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833', expresses her hopes that Lord Durham be able to persuade the Russians to return to Poland its lost freedom and sovereignty.

Legacy
Names given in honour of the Earl include Lambton County, Ontario, Lambton, Toronto (including Lambton Mills, Lambton Mills Cemetery and Lambton House), Lambton Avenue in Toronto, Lord Durham Public School (Ajax, Ontario, closed), Lambton, Québec, Lambton Quay, Lambton Ward and Lambton Harbour in Wellington in New Zealand, and Durham Heights and Cape Lambton (both in the southern tip of Banks Island in the Northwest Territories). The Penshaw Monument in County Durham, on a hill west of Sunderland, was built in his honour.

In English

 * New, Chester. "Lord Durham and the British Background of His Report." Canadian Historical Review 20.2 (1939): 119–135. online
 * New, Chester. Lord Durham's Mission to Canada: A Biography of John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham Clarendon Press, 1929) online.
 * Reid, Stuart J. Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham: 1792–1840 (2 vol London: Longmans, Green and Company. 1906). vol 1 online; also  vol 2 online
 * Woodcock, George. "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham." History Today 9.1 (1959): 3–12.
 * New, Chester. Lord Durham's Mission to Canada: A Biography of John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham Clarendon Press, 1929) online.
 * Reid, Stuart J. Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham: 1792–1840 (2 vol London: Longmans, Green and Company. 1906). vol 1 online; also  vol 2 online
 * Woodcock, George. "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham." History Today 9.1 (1959): 3–12.
 * Woodcock, George. "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham." History Today 9.1 (1959): 3–12.
 * Woodcock, George. "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham." History Today 9.1 (1959): 3–12.

In French

 * Fernand Ouellet « Lambton, John George, 1er comte de Durham [archive] », dans le Dictionnaire biographique du Canada en ligne, University of Toronto et Université Laval, 2000
 * Fernand Ouellet « Lambton, John George, 1er comte de Durham [archive] », dans le Dictionnaire biographique du Canada en ligne, University of Toronto et Université Laval, 2000
 * Fernand Ouellet « Lambton, John George, 1er comte de Durham [archive] », dans le Dictionnaire biographique du Canada en ligne, University of Toronto et Université Laval, 2000

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham


text:
Carroll Baker

Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American retired actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby Doll in 1956. Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve Southern bride earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Baker had other early film roles in Giant (1956) and the romantic comedy But Not for Me (1959). In 1961, she appeared in the controversial independent film Something Wild, directed by her then husband Jack Garfein, playing a traumatized rape victim. She went on to star in several critically acclaimed Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s such as The Big Country (1958), How the West Was Won (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

In the mid-1960s, as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, Baker became a sex symbol after appearing as a hedonistic widow in The Carpetbaggers (1964). The film's producer, Joseph E. Levine, cast her in Sylvia before giving her the role of Jean Harlow in the biopic Harlow (1965). Despite significant prepublicity, Harlow was a critical failure, and Baker relocated to Italy in 1966 amid a legal dispute over her contract with Paramount and Levine's overseeing of her career. In Europe, she spent the next 10 years starring in hard-edged giallo and horror films, including Romolo Guerrieri's The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), a series of four films with Umberto Lenzi beginning with Orgasmo (1969) and ending with Knife of Ice (1972), and Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973). She re-emerged for American audiences as a character actress in the Andy Warhol–produced dark comedy Bad (1977).

Baker appeared in supporting roles in several acclaimed dramas in the 1980s, including the true-crime drama Star 80 (1983) as the mother of murder victim Dorothy Stratten, and the racial drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright. In 1987, she had a supporting part in Ironweed (1987). Through the 1990s Baker had guest roles in several television series, such as Murder, She Wrote; L.A. Law, and Roswell. She also had supporting parts in several big-budget films, such as Kindergarten Cop (1990) and the David Fincher–directed thriller The Game (1997). She formally retired from acting in 2003. In addition to acting, Baker is also the author of two autobiographies and two novels.

Early life and education
Baker was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania into a Catholic family, the daughter of Edith Gertrude (née Duffy) and William Watson Baker, a traveling salesman. Baker is of Irish and Polish descent, which has given rise to a rumor that her birth name was Karolina Piekarski, though this currently cannot be substantiated by known records. Her parents separated when she was eight years old, and she moved with her mother and younger sister, Virginia, to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.

According to Baker, her mother struggled as a single parent, and the family was poor for much of her upbringing.

Baker attended Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where she was a debate team member and active in the marching band and school musicals. At 18, she moved with her family to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she attended St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College). After her first year in college, she began working as a magician's assistant on the vaudeville circuit and joined a dance company, working as a professional dancer. In 1949, Baker won the title of Miss Florida Fruits and Vegetables. In 1951, Baker moved to New York City, where she rented a dirt-floor basement apartment in Queens. She worked as a nightclub dancer and also had stints as a chorus girl in traveling vaudeville shows, which took her to Windsor, Detroit, and New Jersey.

Baker studied acting at HB Studio. In 1952, she enrolled at the Actors Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg. There, she was a classmate of Mike Nichols, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, and Marilyn Monroe; she also became a close friend of James Dean for the rest of his life.

1952–1957: Beginnings
After appearing in television commercials for Winston cigarettes and Coca-Cola, Baker was featured in an episode of Monodrama Theater performing a monodramatic piece, which was broadcast in 1952 on the DuMont Network. The following year, she made her film debut with a small walk-on part in the musical Easy to Love (1953). This led to her landing roles in two Broadway productions: Roger MacDougall's Escapade in the fall of 1953, and Robert Anderson's All Summer Long, opposite Ed Begley, which ran from September to mid-November 1954. In 1955, she screen tested and auditioned for the lead role in Picnic, but lost the part to Kim Novak. She was also considered for the lead in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) after James Dean recommended her for the part to director Nicholas Ray, which she turned down.

Baker's first major screen role was the supporting part of Luz Benedict II in Giant (1956), opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean, in his final role. According to Baker, she had been offered numerous leading parts in feature films before that point, but chose to debut in a supporting role in Giant because she was "insecure" and "wanted to start out a little less 'profile. Giant was largely filmed in the small town of Marfa, Texas, in 1955; Baker recalled her experience on set, saying that James Dean and she were both enamored of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor while filming.

Simultaneously, Baker was cast as the title character in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll (1956), a role initially intended for Marilyn Monroe. Tennessee Williams, who had written and developed the screenplay based on two of his one-act plays, wanted Baker to play the part after seeing her perform a scene from his script at the Actors Studio; likewise, Kazan had been impressed by her performance in All Summer Long on Broadway the year prior. Shot in Benoit, Mississippi, directly after Baker had completed Giant, her role in the film as a sexually repressed teenaged bride to a failed middle-aged cotton gin owner brought Baker overnight fame and a level of notoriety even before the film's release. In the fall of 1956, artist Robert Everheart, under contract with Warner Bros., constructed a 135 ft billboard in Times Square promoting the film, depicting the now-iconic image of a scantily clad Baker lying in a crib sucking her thumb. The controversial advertising campaign for the film caused a pre-emptive backlash from religious groups, and on December 16, 1956, Cardinal Francis Spellman of St. Patrick's Cathedral denounced the film and advised his parish against seeing it. A formal condemnation by the Roman Catholic National Legion of Decency ensued, which considered it "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency".

In spite of this, Baby Doll opened to strong box-office receipts, grossing $51,232 in its first week at the Victoria Theater. In support of Baker, Marilyn Monroe appeared at the film's premiere, working as an usherette to help bolster ticket sales, the proceeds of which were donated to the Actors Studio. Baker received immense critical praise for her performance. Variety said that her performance "captures all the animal charm, the naivete, the vanity, contempt and rising passion of Baby Doll", while Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Baker's ability to exhibit "a piteously flimsy little twist of juvenile greed, inhibitions, physical yearnings, common crudities and conceits". Baby Doll established Baker as an A-list actress and would remain the film for which she is best remembered. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer, which she shared with Jayne Mansfield and Natalie Wood. The performance also earned her a Film Achievement Award from Look, as well as the title "Woman of the Year" in 1957 from Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club. She appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in June 1956.

1958–1963: Contract disputes and independent films
After the success of Baby Doll, Baker was subsequently offered parts in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Too Much, Too Soon (1958), and The Devil's Disciple (1959). She refused to make Too Much Too Soon, so Warner Bros. put her on suspension, which prevented her from starring in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) at MGM. Baker was also chosen by MGM for the lead in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and by Twentieth Century Fox for The Three Faces of Eve (1957), but her contract with Warner Bros. again prevented her from accepting the roles. Tensions between Baker and the studio escalated further when she went against their wishes by appearing in Arms and the Man on stage. Baker commented on the effect of the system on her career, saying: "I came in at the end of the big studio system. I still had a slave contract and they were willing to put you in almost anything they had."

After her suspension with Warner Bros. was lifted, Baker appeared in William Wyler's Western epic The Big Country (1958). The film was well received by critics, though the shoot was described as "problematic": Baker was four months pregnant at the time and had to wear restraining garments, and director Wyler reportedly had her on the verge of tears after forcing her to repeat the same take over 60 times, only to use the first one. She followed The Big Country with lead roles in two romances, portraying a nun in The Miracle (1959), co-starring Roger Moore, and in But Not for Me (1959), a comedy with Clark Gable. The New York Times praised Baker's performance in But Not for Me, saying: "Miss Baker, being a young lady who not only has looks, but also can act, makes you understand why Mr. Gable would like to cheat a little bit on Father Time." She disliked The Miracle so much that she bought out her contract with Warner Bros., putting her in considerable debt. But Not for Me was made at Paramount.

Baker went on to make the experimental film Something Wild (1961), directed by her then-husband Jack Garfein. In this independent production, she plays a young college student from the Bronx who is raped one night in St. James Park, and later held captive by a Manhattan mechanic (Ralph Meeker), who witnessed her subsequent suicide attempt. In preparation for her role, Baker lived alone in a boarding house in New York's Lower East Side, and gained employment as a department-store salesgirl; her Method approach to the role was profiled in Life magazine in 1960. Critical reaction to the film was largely negative, though Film Quarterly cited it as "the most interesting American film of its quarter", and the most underrated film of 1961. However, its controversial depiction of rape led to critical backlash and public criticism, and the film has been credited by historians as nearly halting Baker's career. The same year, she portrayed Gwen Harold in Bridge to the Sun (1961), a production by MGM based on the 1957 best-selling autobiography of a Tennessee-born woman who married a Japanese diplomat (portrayed by James Shigeta) and became one of the few Americans to live in Japan during World War II. While only a modest success at the box office, the film was well received by critics and was America's entry at the Venice International Film Festival.

After this, Baker appeared in the independent British-German film Station Six-Sahara (1962) as a woman who provokes tensions at an oil station in the Sahara Desert, as well as the blockbuster Western epic How the West Was Won (1962), opposite James Stewart and Debbie Reynolds and former co-stars Gregory Peck and Karl Malden. In addition to film acting, Baker also found time to appear again on Broadway, starring in the 1962 production of Garson Kanin's Come on Strong in the fall of that year. In 1963, Baker relocated permanently with then-husband Jack Garfein and their two children to Los Angeles, where she based herself for the next several years. She traveled to Kenya to film Mister Moses (1965), where publicized rumors spread that she and co-star Robert Mitchum were having an affair, which they both vehemently denied. Another story, now considered apocryphal, had it that a Maasai chief in Kenya offered 150 cows, 200 goats, sheep, and $750 for her hand in marriage. She subsequently appeared with Maasai warriors on the cover of Lifes July 1964 issue.

1964–1966: Sex symbol roles
Baker portrayed a pacifist Quaker schoolteacher in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (1964), and received critical acclaim for the role. She then had a supporting role as Saint Veronica in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in The Carpetbaggers (1964), which brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews. The New York Times called the film "a sickly sour distillation" of the source novel, but said Baker's performance "brought some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow." The film was the top moneymaker of that year, with domestic box-office receipts of $13,000,000, and marked the beginning of a tumultuous relationship with the film's producer, Joseph E. Levine.

Based on her Carpetbaggers performance, Levine began to develop Baker as a movie sex symbol, and she appeared posing in the December 1964 issue of Playboy. She was subsequently cast by Levine in the title roles of two 1965 potboilers— Sylvia, as an ex-prostitute and con artist, and as Jean Harlow in Harlow. Baker appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on their November 2, 1963, issue dressed as Harlow, promoting the film's upcoming production. In 1965, she became an official celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses and appeared in advertisements for the company. Baker likened this era of her career to "being a beauty contest winner [as opposed to] an actress".

Despite much prepublicity, Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics: Variety referred to Baker's portrayal of Harlow as "a fairly reasonable facsimile, although she lacks the electric fire of the original." Relations between Baker and Levine soured; in a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies", which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine in 1966 over her contract with Paramount Pictures, and was ultimately fired by Paramount and had her paychecks from Harlow frozen amid the contentious legal dispute; this left Baker hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (however, she was eventually awarded $1 million in compensation).

In an interview with Rex Reed in his book People Are Crazy Here (1974), Baker revealed that she had felt pressure in both her working relationship with Levine, and her domestic life with her husband who she said wanted to maintain an expensive lifestyle: "We'd been very poor when we started out at the Actors Studio in New York", she told Reed. "I was under contract to Joe Levine, who was going around giving me diamonds and behaving like he owned me. I never slept with him or anything, but everyone thought I was his mistress." In the spring of 1966, Baker returned to theatre, performing in a production of Anna Christie at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles. The production was directed by Garfein. The production was heralded as the "theatre event of the week" in Los Angeles, though its reception was middling. Cecil Smith of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the production: "The beautiful Miss Baker's vehicle becomes a hearse." The play was also performed at the Tappan Zee Playhouse in Nyack, New York in June 1966.

1967–1975: European films
Baker separated from her second husband, Jack Garfein, in 1967, and moved to Europe with her two children to pursue a career there after struggling to find work in Hollywood. Eventually settling in Rome, Baker became fluent in Italian and spent the next several years starring in hard-edged giallo, exploitation, and horror films. In 1966, Baker had been invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where she met director Marco Ferreri, who asked her to play the lead role in Her Harem (1967). This was followed with the horror films The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) and The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971). Baker also starred in So Sweet... So Perverse (1969), Orgasmo (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970), and Il coltello di ghiaccio (Knife of Ice) (1972), all giallo films directed by Italian filmmaker Umberto Lenzi.

Many of these films feature her in roles as distressed women, and often showed Baker in nude scenes, which few major Hollywood actors were willing to do at the time. Baker became a favorite of Umberto Lenzi, with her best-known role being in the aforementioned Paranoia, where she played a wealthy widow tormented by two sadistic siblings. In his review of Paranoia, Roger Ebert said: "Carroll Baker, who was a Hollywood sex symbol (for some, it is said) until she sued Joe Levine and got blacklisted, has been around. She may not be an actress, but she can act. In The Carpetbaggers, there was a nice wholesome vulgarity to her performance. She is not intrinsically as bad as she appears in Paranoia. I think maybe she was saying 'the hell with it', and having a good time." As with Paranoia, the majority of the films she made in Italy received poor critical reception in the United States, though they afforded Baker—who had left Hollywood in debt and with two children to support— an income, as well as fame abroad. In retrospect, Baker commented on her career in Italy and on her exploitation film roles, saying: "I think I made more films [there] than I made in Hollywood, but the mentality is different. What they think is wonderful is not what we might ... it was marvelous for me because it really brought me back to life, and it gave me a whole new outlook. It's wonderful to know about a different world."

She followed her roles in Lenzi's films with a leading role in Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973) as the titular witch, alongside Isabelle De Funès and George Eastman. TV Guide referred to the film as an "exceptionally handsome example of 1970s Italian pop-exploitation filmmaking sweetened by Piero Umilani's lounge-jazz score", and praised Baker's performance, but noted that she was "physically wrong for the role; her elaborate lace-and-beribboned costumes sometimes make her look more like a fleshy Miss Havisham than a sleekly predatory sorceress".

1976–1987: Return to American films; theater
Baker's first American film in over 10 years came in the Andy Warhol–produced black comedy Bad (1977), in which she plays the lead role of a Queens beauty salon owner who provides hitmen with jobs, starring alongside Susan Tyrrell and Perry King. "You can hardly call making an Andy Warhol movie a 'comeback'", said Baker. "It's more like going to the moon! The subject is totally unique."

She followed Bad with a part in the low-budget surrealist thriller The Sky Is Falling (1979) with Dennis Hopper, playing a washed-up actress living among expatriates in a Spanish village. The 1970s also had a return to the stage for Baker, where she appeared in British theater productions of Bell, Book, and Candle; Rain, an adaptation of a story by W. Somerset Maugham; Lucy Crown, an adaptation of the novel by Irwin Shaw; and Motive. In 1978, while touring England and Ireland in productions of Motive, Baker met stage actor Donald Burton, who became her third husband. She also appeared in American stage productions of Georges Feydeau's 13 Rue de l'Amour, Forty Carats, and Goodbye Charlie.

By the 1980s Baker had largely become a character actress, and was based in London. She starred in a supporting role in the 1980 Walt Disney-produced horror film The Watcher in the Woods, alongside Bette Davis, after having been asked by British director John Hough, a longtime admirer of her work. After an appearance in the British television film Red Monarch (1983), she played the mother of murdered Playboy model Dorothy Stratten (played by Mariel Hemingway) in the biopic Star 80 (1983). She also appeared as the mother of Sigmund Freud in the historical comedy The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984) with Carol Kane and Klaus Kinski.

Baker featured in Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), a coming-of-age drama set against Nazi Germany, as well as in the drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright, which featured Matt Dillon, Geraldine Page, and a young Oprah Winfrey. In the latter Baker plays a 1930s Chicago housewife, mother of a teenage girl accidentally killed by an African American chauffeur, who attempts to cover up the accident. Critic Roger Ebert praised Baker's performance, noting her "powerful" scene with Winfrey during the film's finale.

Following Native Son, Baker had a critically acclaimed lead role as the wife of a schizophrenic drifter (played by Jack Nicholson) in Ironweed (1987), alongside Meryl Streep. Her performance in the film was praised by Ebert, who said: "Nicholson's homecoming [in the film] is all the more effective because Carroll Baker is so good as his wife ... she finds a whole new range. It may seem surprising to say that Baker holds the screen against Jack Nicholson, and yet she does".

1988–2003: Later roles and retirement
In 1990, Baker played the role of Eleanor Crisp—described by Roger Ebert as "an effective bitch on wheels" —in Ivan Reitman's comedy Kindergarten Cop, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which she filmed in Astoria, Oregon, in the summer of 1990. The film was a huge financial success, grossing over $200 million worldwide. Her film and television work continued throughout the '90s, and she acted in many made-for-television movies, including the true-crime story Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993), Witness Run (1996), and Dalva (1996) with Farrah Fawcett.

In 1997, Baker was cast in a supporting role in David Fincher's thriller The Game, in which she plays a housekeeper to a billionaire San Francisco banker (played by Michael Douglas) who becomes embroiled in a sadistic game by his antagonistic brother, played by Sean Penn. In an interview with The New York Post following the film's release, Baker commented on her role, saying: "It's an important movie and I'm honored to be in it. Of course, I'd like to be the romantic lead, and I'm actually closer to Michael's [Douglas] age than Deborah Kara Unger is, [but] I think it's always worked that way in Hollywood. When I was in my 20s, I played opposite Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, and Clark Gable, all of whom were old enough to be my father." The Game proved to be a major success among Baker's later films, performing successfully at the box office and garnering widespread critical acclaim.

In addition to her work in big-budget productions, Baker also appeared in small, independent films, such as Just Your Luck (1996) and Nowhere to Go (1997). The 1990s also had Baker more frequently appearing on television series, including episodes of Grand (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1991, opposite Teri Garr in a segment directed by Michael J. Fox), Murder, She Wrote and L.A. Law (both 1993); Chicago Hope (1995), and Roswell (1999). In 2000, she appeared in the Lifetime film Another Woman's Husband. In 2002, Baker appeared in the documentary Cinerama Adventure, and guest-starred in an episode of The Lyon's Den, playing the mother of Rob Lowe's character. Her role in The Lyon's Den was Baker's last screen appearance before she formally retired from acting in 2003. Her acting career spanned 50 years, and more than 80 roles in film, television, and theater.

She has, however, sometimes participated in retrospective documentaries, including an interview for the 2006 DVD release of Baby Doll, which includes a documentary featuring Baker reflecting on the film's impact on her career. Baker has also been featured in documentaries about several of her co-stars, including Clark Gable, Roger Moore, Sal Mineo, and James Dean, including the 1975 James Dean: The First American Teenager, and a 1985 BBC Radio 2 tribute marking the 30th anniversary of the actor's death. Her memories of James Dean at the Actors Studio and later in Giant were recalled on BBC Radio 2 in 1982, when she guested on You're Tearing Me Apart, Terence Pettigrew's documentary which commemorated the 25th anniversary of Dean's death in a car accident in 1955. Also on the program were singer-actor Adam Faith and the screenwriter Ray Connolly.

Writing
In 1983, Baker published an autobiography titled Baby Doll: An Autobiography, which detailed her life and career as an actress and revealed the issues with Paramount and Warner Bros. that had led her to move to Europe in the 1970s and pursue a career in Italian films. Baker said to Regis Philbin, when he interviewed her for Lifetime Television in 1986, that she "didn't want to write an autobiography ... but I wanted to write, and I knew that would be the easiest thing to get published." She further commented to Philbin on her writing, saying: "I think I always wanted to write, but I was a little self-conscious about it. I never had a formal education, and I've always had such a respect for writing. While I could go out and say, even before I started to act, 'Yes, I'm an actress,' I couldn't really say 'I'm a writer.'" In spite of Baker's misgivings, Baby Doll: An Autobiography was well received. She later wrote two other books, To Africa with Love (1986), detailing her time spent in Africa, and a novel titled A Roman Tale (1987).

Personal life
Baker has been married three times. She first married 54-year-old Louie Ritter, owner of the Weylin Hotel, in 1953. The marriage ended within a year, after which she enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York City. Baker alleged that Ritter had raped her when she was still a virgin in the early stages of their relationship. Her second was to director Jack Garfein, a Holocaust survivor she met at the Studio and for whom she converted to Judaism (having been raised a Catholic). They had one daughter, Blanche Baker (born 1956), also an actress, and a son, Herschel Garfein (born 1958), who is a composer and faculty member at the Steinhardt School of Music at New York University. Garfein and Baker divorced in 1969. Baker also has six grandchildren.

Baker married her third husband, British theater actor Donald Burton, on March 10, 1982, and resided in Hampstead, London, in the 1980s. The couple remained together until Burton's death from emphysema at their home in Cathedral City, California, on December 8, 2007.

After leaving Hollywood in the mid-1960s, Baker traveled with Bob Hope's Christmas USO troupe entertaining soldiers in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, an experience which she described as reformative: "In the hospitals I held the hands of damaged young men, and I realized that my pain was not exclusive: that in this world there was suffering much more terrible than mine."

Baker resided mainly in New York City and Los Angeles throughout the 1950s and 1960s before relocating to Rome to pursue her career there. Baker was mainly based in Palm Springs, California, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. , she resides in New York City. In February 2014, she served as maid of honor at longtime friend, psychologist, and former actor, Dr Patrick Suraci's wedding to his partner, Tony Perkins, in New York.

Legacy
Baker's role in Baby Doll was one that would come to be career-defining, and her association with both the film and character remained consistent throughout her career. In a 1983 article by People magazine, "Baby Doll" was referred to as Baker's "middle name". The film, adapted originally from Tennessee Williams' one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, has been performed on stage into the 21st century: it had its theatrical debut in 2000, and has been performed numerous times since. Baker's performance of the role was credited in Vanity Fair as marking a significant cultural interest in the ingénue in American cinema.

In 2011, Baker attended the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in celebration of Williams' centenary. There, she participated in a panel with Rex Reed, where she discussed her experiences with Williams and performing in Baby Doll. In 2011 and 2012, she was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hoboken and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festivals.

A 1956 photograph by Diane Arbus depicts Baker onscreen in Baby Doll with a passing silhouette during a New York City theater screening of the film. She was also photographed by Andy Warhol in 1975 as part of his Polaroid portrait series, and is mentioned in his published diaries.

Baker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1725 Vine Street, which was erected on February 8, 1960. In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was also dedicated to her.

Filmography and credits
Select filmography:

 * Easy to Love (1953)
 * Giant (1956)
 * Baby Doll (1956)
 * The Big Country (1958)
 * But Not For Me (1959)
 * The Miracle (1959)
 * Bridge to the Sun (1961)
 * Something Wild (1961)
 * How the West Was Won (1962)
 * Station Six-Sahara (1963)
 * The Carpetbaggers (1964)
 * Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
 * Sylvia (1965)
 * The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
 * Mister Moses (1965)
 * Harlow (1965)
 * Her Harem (1967)
 * Jack of Diamonds (1967)
 * The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968)
 * Orgasmo (1969)
 * So Sweet...So Perverse (1969)
 * A Quiet Place to Kill (1970)
 * Captain Apache (1971)
 * The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971)
 * Knife of Ice (1972)
 * Baba Yaga (1973)
 * The Flower with the Petals of Steel (1973)
 * Private Lessons (1975)
 * Andy Warhol's Bad (1977)
 * Cyclone (1978)
 * The World Is Full Of Married Men (1979)
 * Star 80 (1983)
 * Native Son (1986)
 * Ironweed (1987)
 * Kindergarten Cop (1990)
 * Blonde Fist (1991)
 * The Game (1997)

Select television credits:

 * The Web (1954)
 * Danger (1955)
 * Thriller (1976)
 * Grand (1990)
 * Tales from the Crypt (1991)
 * Murder, She Wrote (1993)
 * L.A. Law (1993)
 * Chicago Hope (1995)
 * Roswell (1999)

Select stage credits: '''

 * Escapade (1953)
 * All Summer Long (1954)
 * Arms and the Man (1958)
 * Come on Strong (1962)
 * Anna Christie (1966)
 * Rain (1977)
 * Lucy Crown (1979)
 * Motive (1980)

Publications

 * Baby Doll: An Autobiography (Arbor House, 1983), ISBN 978-0-87795-558-0
 * To Africa with Love (Dutton, 1986), ISBN 978-0-917657-54-2
 * A Roman Tale (Dutton, 1986), ISBN 978-0-917657-53-5

Awards

 * 1957: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress
 * 1957: Hasty Pudding Theatricals Award for "Woman of the Year"
 * 1965: Golden Laurel for Dramatic Performance, Female, for The Carpetbaggers (2nd place)

Nominations

 * 1957: Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Baby Doll
 * 1957: Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, for Baby Doll
 * 1957: BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress (USA), for Baby Doll
 * 1964: Golden Laurel for Top Female Star
 * 1965: Golden Laurel for Female Star

Honors

 * 1996: Golden Boot Award for The Big Country, How the West Was Won, and Cheyenne Autumn
 * 1997: Lifetime Achievement Award, Breckenridge (Colorado) Film Festival
 * 2009: The National Arts Club's Medal of Honor
 * 2011: Lifetime Achievement Award, Hoboken International Film Festival
 * 2012: Lifetime Achievement Award, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival

title: Carroll Baker