Poverty, by America

Available

Product Details

Price
$28.00  $26.04
Publisher
Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Publish Date
Pages
304
Dimensions
5.87 X 8.68 X 1.06 inches | 0.89 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780593239919

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About the Author

Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and the founding director of the Eviction Lab. His last book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, among others. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Desmond is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

"A fierce polemic on an enduring problem . . . [Desmond] writes movingly about the psychological scars of poverty . . . and his prose can be crisp, elegant, and elegiac."--The Economist

"Provocative and compelling . . . [Desmond] packs in a sweeping array of examples and numbers to support his thesis and . . . the accumulation has the effect of shifting one's brain ever so slightly to change the entire frame of reference."--NPR

"A data-driven manifesto that turns a critical eye on those who inflict and perpetuate unlivable conditions on others."--Boston Globe

"Urgent and accessible . . . It's refreshing to read a work of social criticism that eschews the easy and often smug allure of abstraction, in favor of plainspoken practicality. Its moral force is a gut punch."--The New Yorker

"A compact jeremiad on the persistence of extreme want in a nation of extraordinary wealth . . . [Desmond's] purpose here is to draw attention to what's plain in front of us--damn the etiquette, and damn the grand abstractions."--The New York Times Book Review

"[Poverty, by America] shows how wealthy and middle class Americans knowingly and unknowingly perpetuate a broken system that keeps poor people poor. It's not an easy problem to fix, but through in-depth research and original reporting, the acclaimed sociologist offers solutions that would help spread America's wealth and make everyone more prosperous."--Time

"With Poverty, by America, [Desmond] blends history, research, and firsthand reporting to show how the wealthy punish the poor and keep people living in poverty, both purposefully and without realizing. Passionate and empathetic."--Salon

"This is the kind of awareness we desperately need to start to change this broken, cruel system."--LitHub

"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted returns with another paradigm-shifting inquiry into America's dark heart. . . . As always, Desmond delivers a radical vision: a book that urges us to abandon old ways of thinking and dream a new path forward."--Esquire

"A short manifesto interspersed with compelling anecdotes and infused with passionate clarity . . . [Desmond is] an intimate and sensitive chronicler of inequality in American life."--The Progressive

"Reading Poverty, by America, I felt like Matthew Desmond was sitting at my kitchen table, explaining the complexities of poverty in a way I could completely understand. This book is essential and instructive, hopeful and enraging."--Ann Patchett

"A powerful inquiry . . . Desmond enriches his detailed and trenchant analysis with poignant reflections on America's 'unblushing inequality' and the 'anomie of wealth.' It's a gut-wrenching call for change."--Publishers Weekly

"A brilliantly researched and artfully written study of how the U.S. has failed to effectively address the issue of poverty . . ."--Booklist (starred review)