Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Ratings89
Average rating4.6
15
Ratings89
Average rating4.6
From Princeton sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America
In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
([source][1])
[1]: http://evictedbook.com/books/evicted-tr
Reviews with the most likes.
This book was pretty good. I had to read it for a journalism class, and it really provided me a different perspective as someone who has almost always lived in suburbia. The stories told are heart breaking because it's of a system d signed to fail people.
There are a lot of characters and things going on, which did make it harder to follow, especially when it would switch from situation to situation and it made reading the book more difficult trying to remember the details of different people and who knew who, ect.
Excellent sociological analysis of life at/below the poverty line in Milwaukee. Glad that Desmond spent time explaining how he did his ethnographic research and his conclusions, as I had lots of questions. Definitely recommended reading for all. By spending time with these people, you viscerally feel the effects of grinding poverty, hopelessness and helplessness, and desperation.
Not sure if I'd recommend reading this book in one sitting like I did, but it's a hard-hitting, excellent read. Add this to your arsenal of books on social justice along with Just Mercy and The New Jim Crow.
Fascinating and infuriating. Reads in a way like a novel - the book follows several families and individuals struggling with housing insecurity and everything that goes along with it. There are single people and families, some with other issues like addiction or criminal history, but all their stories are compelling and I was rooting for all of them to succeed and find a stable place to live. (Except for the one super-racist white guy, but he's a fairly minor character.) The book also looks at the structural faults of the housing system - my only real issue is that I think more time could have been spent on the effects of segregation and redlining, because even the poorest white families profiled in this book have an easier time and end up in better neighborhoods. There are also two landlords who are characters, which is interesting - almost no one is a full-on hero or villain here. I learned a ton by reading this, and I'm someone who works with low-income people on a daily basis in my job. Highly recommended.
