First published 2024
Matthew Desmond centers actual American families in his examination of modern poverty. Through direct fieldwork, he witnesses households on the brink of financial ruin as they confront eviction threats, search for secure housing, and face brutal decisions about dividing small paychecks between rent, groceries, and basic needs. Desmond rejects treating economic struggle as abstract policy discussion. He chronicles the lived experience of financial survival by working directly with families under stress. His investigation shows how personal hardships link to broader institutional structures that generate and sustain economic suffering. The book documents instances of community support amid poverty's relentless pressure. Families maintain their dignity and bonds while battling systems built to destabilize them. Desmond reveals the precise processes that lock people into financial insecurity cycles. Readers learn how inequality functions in daily life and witness ordinary people's extraordinary resilience against economic hardship.
Genres: american, poverty, social-issues, non-fiction, 21st-century, social-welfare
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: documentary, social-commentary
Setting: America
Period: 21st-century
320 pages · Paperback · Crown