Forcing an End to Poverty.

• Date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Conniff, Ruth

We must untangle ourselves from a system that feeds on poverty, Matthew Desmond writes in his new book, Poverty, by America. Desmond calls on the citizens of the richest nation on earth to become "poverty abolitionists" and refuse to live as "unwitting enemies of the poor."

Desmond is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, the novel-like story of a handful of Milwaukee families who repeatedly lose their homes. His new book is a short manifesto interspersed with compelling anecdotes and infused with passionate clarity.

In the prologue, Desmond briefly sketches his own story--how his family fell on hard times and lost his childhood home; how he worked his way through college; how he hung out with homeless people while observing the dazzling affluence of his classmates. Figuring out what was wrong with that picture has been the driving motivation of his life as a sociologist, journalist...