"The author freezes a three-decade time frame to capture the essence—literally, the sights, sounds, and odors—of the British capital at the height of the Victorian era. Picard's systematic examination offers both detail and insight into conditions of life, from all walks of life, as she presents an account at once greatly factual and highly atmospheric. The format is logical and the material easy to follow, with chapters ranging in topic from 'Smells' (to really appreciate London back then, the author instructs the reader to 'think of the worst smell you have ever met'), 'The Streets,' 'Destitution and Poverty,' 'Upper Classes and Royalty,' 'Health,' 'Education,' and 'Religion' . . . [F]or serious and well-versed readers seeking to stoke their interest in learning more about the city that, at the time, was the world's capital."—Brad Hooper, Booklist

"The historian and the storyteller in Ms. Satter are never at war with each other. Family Properties is so packed with the horrors visited upon black families in Chicago from the 1940s through the 1970s that you will want to walk outside every 15 pages or so and simply scream in outrage. Yet her tone throughout is dispassionate. She is at heart a historian, not a memoirist. And she is a vertiginously good one. Her book is transfixing from its first sentence . . . the pleasures here are deep and resonant ones. Family Properties feels like something close to an instant classic."—Dwight Garner, The New York Times