Poverty, by America

Author Matthew Desmond
Narrator Dion Graham
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date 21 March 2023
Run Time 5 hours and 41 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Housing and homelessness, Poverty and precarity, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, Social classes, Social discrimination and equal treatment, Society and Social Sciences.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The United States is the richest country on earth, yet has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. One in seven Americans live below the poverty line, a line which hasn't shifted over the last fifty years, despite the efforts of successive governments and extensive relief programs. Why is there so much scarcity in this land of dollars?

In Poverty, by America, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond examines the nature of American poverty today and the stories we tell ourselves about it. Spanning racism, social isolation, mass incarceration, the housing crisis, domestic violence, crack and opioid epidemics, welfare cuts and more, Desmond argues that poverty does not result from a lack of resources or good policy ideas. We already know how to eliminate it. The hard part is getting more of us to care.

To do so, we need a new story. As things stand, liberals explain poverty through insurmountable structural issues, whereas conservatives highlight personal failings and poor life choices. Both analyses abdicate responsibility, and ignore the reality that the advantages of the rich only come at the expense of the poor. It is time better-paid citizens put themselves back in the narrative, recognizing that the depth and expanse of poverty in any nation reflects our failure to look out for one another. Poverty must ultimately be met by community: all this suffering and want is our doing, and we can undo it.

© Matthew Desmond 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Critics Review

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

[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

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

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

[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

Matthew Desmond writes with honesty, clarity and even occasional poetry about a scourge that should shame us all. Poverty, by America contains impeccable expert evidence but also the stories of human beings. It offers hope to all of us who still look to the USA for progressive imagination in our so unequal world.

Shami Chakrabarti

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

Poverty, By America is a book that appeals to both the heart and the intellect. Desmond deftly combines intimate portrayals of poverty with a clarion call for systemic action. He is utterly convincing: we must all become poverty abolitionists.

Emily Kenway, author of The Truth About Modern Slavery

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

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