Poverty, by America

Poverty, by America by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Matthew Desmond is a bold reexamination of why poverty persists in the richest nation on earth—and how the rest of society benefits from it.

Drawing on history, research, and firsthand reporting, Desmond argues that affluent Americans sustain poverty by exploiting low-wage labor, inflating housing and credit costs, and designing a welfare system that favors the wealthy. He exposes how privilege and inequality are structurally linked, creating communities of abundance beside those of deprivation.

Written with compassion and urgency, this groundbreaking book challenges readers to see poverty not as an accident, but as a product of choices that serve the comfortable. Desmond calls for a movement of “poverty abolitionists” to end systemic inequality and create a nation built on shared prosperity and true freedom.