Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. A MacArthur Fellow, Desmond is a leading expert on poverty, homelessness and public policy. His previous book Evicted- Poverty and Profit in the American City reached millions of readers worldwide, won numerous awards - including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award - and inspired significant changes in American public policy. Politico has named Desmond one of the 50 people across the United States who are most influencing the national debate.
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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