Sociological Perspectives on the Compounding Weight of Poverty in America

 Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

Matthew Desmond from Library of Congress Life, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond from Politics 4 the People

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this incredible book. I’ve been meaning to read Evicted for some time, but haven’t gotten around to it. However, I think Poverty, by America might be an even more important book since it explores and humanizes the loss of money and capital for people in America, the supposed land of wealth and resources. Desmond explored the challenges that people living in poverty face on a daily basis, and how that kind of stigma and lack of resources creates a kind of Matthew effect where they struggle to get out of poverty. Desmond’s approach to observe and interview his subjects provides us with insight into the plight of their poverty, and provides a voice to those we often do not listen to or hear from. For me, Desmond’s book challenged some of the assumptions I have about poverty and the reasons why people become impoverished. This is such an important book, and I think this book would be great to teach as well. It’s accessible and could be used in many different courses, whether exploring sociology, education, or even in a gen ed writing course that explores issues and problems in society. Desmond writes with clarity, avoiding a lot of scholarly jargon. Furthermore, he writes with urgency, acknowledging the complexity and compounding effects of poverty, not just on those who are impoverished, but on society in general. I hope that this book is used in classrooms in the next few years to further explore the issues related to poverty and to provide voice and light to this serious and complicated issue that could happen to many of us.