Poverty, by America

"Desmond's examination of poverty's roots and solutions aligns with Barack Obama's long-standing focus on economic inequality and social justice. It's an expected read for someone exploring systemic challenges facing America."

"Matthew Desmond is an academic and journalist. In this book, he’s trying to understand ‘Why is there so much poverty and why is it so persistent in the US?’ It’s based on his years of research, over his career, and also reporting and just stories of folks. He gets into the meat of it, which is the ways that in the US there are systems in place that keep wealthy people wealthy and poor people poor. He then gets into the details of this really unjust system. It’s a grim book, in a lot of ways. But one of his strengths and one reason why this book is so good is that in addition to being knowledgeable, he’s really passionate and approaches things from a really human angle. There are a lot of stories in the book—he doesn’t treat his subject as something that’s dry or not connected to you, whoever you are, who’s reading the book. It’s really grounded in life experience. And I think that makes it really immediate and urgent and really powerful. No. The narrator is Dion Graham who also narrated Matthew Desmond’s first book, Evicted . It’s a perfect match. Dion Graham is an incredible narrator and really good at nonfiction because he’s very engaging. His voice is really vibrant and energetic. He can make anything interesting. He really captures Matthew Desmond’s passion and compassion. Also, the stories of the people that Desmond shares in the book: he just captures those beautifully. Definitely. As I was saying, this book felt very immediate to me and made me really think a lot. I couldn’t look away from it while I was listening. Some of that is just due to the fact Desmond is a thoughtful researcher and writer and argues his point very well. But the narration was definitely a piece of it. It brings it closer. Yes, he absolutely does. It’s definitely not all grim. He does imagine various futures and possibilities for solutions. He is also really good at inviting the listener in to think about these issues in their own life and inviting anyone—whoever you are—to become ‘poverty abolitionists.’ He has some ideas around that. So yes, the book is bleak at parts, but not at all hopeless."

"In 2022, the noise rock band Chat Pile put out a song that repeatedly asks “Why? Why do people have to live outside?” In Poverty, by America, sociologist Matthew Desmond plainly delivers an answer: because we benefit from it. Not a vague, squishy, ethereal we, but a more direct we – him, me, and, likely, you. The book is a tightly written, research-backed and uncomfortable argument that those of us lucky enough to live above the poverty line directly profit by keeping the people on the other side beneath it. Or, as Chat Pile puts it, “real American horror story.”"

"It's not a particularly uplifting book, but it is enlightening, and shares a lot of information about how we got in this situation we're in as a country, because of the way we treat poverty. I'm looking forward to learning more."

"Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond, investigates structurally engineered poverty. One of the many memorable facts that this book delineates is that America spends over twice as much on tax benefits for the upper class as it does on national defense."