Awards

• Long-listed for Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2024
• Long-listed for PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction 2024

Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, The Star Tribune, Vulture, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Public Library, Esquire, California Review of Books, She Reads, Library Journal “Urgent and accessible . . . Its moral force is a gut punch.”—The New Yorker Longlisted for the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?    In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.   Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.

Full Product Details

9780593678541

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for Evicted Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction * National Book Critics Circle Award * Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, American Library Association * PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction * PEN/New England, Best Book of Nonfiction My God, what [Evicted] lays bare about American poverty. It is devastating and infuriating and a necessary read. -Roxane Gay Astonishing . . . [Matthew] Desmond has set a new standard for reporting on poverty. -Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review Gripping and moving-tragic, too. -Jesmyn Ward This book gave me a better sense of what it is like to be very poor in this country than anything else I have read. . . . It is beautifully written, thought-provoking, and unforgettable. -Bill Gates, Gates Notes This is an extraordinary and crucial piece of work. Read it. Please, read it. -Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Evicted stands among the very best of the social justice books. -Ann Patchett After reading Evicted, you'll realize you cannot have a serious conversation about poverty without talking about housing. . . . The book is that good, and it's that unignorable. -Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

[Desmond's] arguments have the potential to push debate about wealth in America to a new level. . . . The brilliance of Poverty, By America lies in Desmond's account of how government and social policy act in ways commensurate with his class-war thesis. Its texture is provided by effective storytelling, which illustrates that poverty has become a way of life. -The Guardian 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 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 This book is essential and instructive, hopeful and enraging. -Ann Patchett A powerful inquiry . . . 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)

“A searing, essential book . . .[that] solidifies Desmond’s status as a remarkable chronicler of our times.”—Vulture “The passion, eloquence, and lively storytelling that made Evicted a Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller are back in force as Desmond continues to speak on behalf of America’s most hard-pressed. Desmond is our national conscience.”—Oprah Daily “Desmond’s new book is short, smart, and thrilling. The thrill comes from the sheer boldness of Desmond’s argument and his carefully modulated but very real tone of outrage that underlies his words.”—Rolling Stone “[Desmond’s] arguments have the potential to push debate about wealth in America to a new level. . . . The brilliance of Poverty, By America . . . is provided by effective storytelling, which illustrates that poverty has become a way of life.”—The Guardian “Poverty, by America is a searing moral indictment of how and why the United States tolerates such high levels of poverty and of inequality . . . [and] a hands-on call to action.”—The Nation “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.”—The 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 “[T]hrough in-depth research and original reporting, the acclaimed sociologist offers solutions that would help spread America’s wealth and make everyone more prosperous.”—Time “Desmond’s book makes an urgent and unignorable appeal to our national conscience, one that has been quietly eroded over decades of increasing personal consumption and untiring corporate greed.”—Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine “Desmond’s electrifying pen cuts through the usual evasions and exposes the ‘selfish,’ ‘dishonest’ and ‘sinful’ pretence that poverty is a problem that America cannot afford to fix, rather than one it chooses not to.”—Prospect “A powerful polemic, one that has expanded and deepened my understanding of American poverty. Desmond approaches the subject with a refreshing candidness and directs his ire toward all the right places.”—Roxane Gay   “Passionate and empathetic.”—Salon “This book is essential and instructive, hopeful and enraging.”—Ann Patchett

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. Poverty, by America deserves to be one of those books you see people reading on the subway, or handing around at organizing meetings, or citing in congressional hearings. 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. It is a road map for how we can be better people, working together to build a better country. -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 . . . [Desmond] also uses his knowledge of the subject to explore what works and identify potential solutions that merit further consideration. This thoughtful investigation of a critically important subject, a piercing title by an astute writer who is both passionate and fearless, is valuable reading for all concerned with affecting positive change. -Booklist (starred review)

Author Information

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.

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