Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Definitely worth the read. It’s told with stories so it’s an enjoyable read but you still learn about all sorts of facts and figures. It opened my eyes to the obstacles and barriers that we make impossible for those in poverty to overcome. I will not look at inner city neighborhoods or trailer parks the same way again. Already thinking of ways to try and help this problem in my own city. I only wish I had actually read this when I was a landlord....read more
Well investigated, well researched, well written account of the growing inequities of income and housing in America. This should be required reading for high school students, especially those fortunate enough (such as myself) to have never known what it's like to wonder where your next meal is coming from and where you'll be sleeping tonight.
As someone who was actually living in Milwaukee at the time this book takes place - I would HIGHLY recommend it. Milwaukee is a city with such amazing potential, yet such horrible poverty and segregation. This book follows a few families over the course of a year and details their struggles in some of the most segregated Milwaukee neighborhoods (African American north side, Hispanic near south side & poor white far south side)
I wish the author had put the "About This Project" at the beginning of the book, and I recommend that if you read this book you start with that section. When I began the book I had the expectation that the book would have a lot of history, politics, policy, with some personal examples, as many nonfiction books focusing on a particular legal or policy issue typically do. This book is not like that, it's an ethnography. It is more of a biography of...read more
This book was very insightful on how broken the system is. I commend Matthew for immersing himself in the environment for so long. It was a slow start for me and sometimes the stats left my mind wandering elsewhere but overall a decent book and I would recommend if for no other reason than to shine light on this issue.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.