Urgent and accessible ... It’s refreshing to read a work of social criticism that eschews the easy and often smug allure of abstraction, in favor of plainspoken practicality. Poverty, by America deserves to be one of those books you see people reading on the subway, or handing around at organizing meetings, or citing in congressional hearings. Its moral force is a gut punch.

A compact jeremiad on the persistence of extreme want in a nation of extraordinary wealth ... [Desmond’s] purpose here is to draw attention to what’s plain in front of us—damn the etiquette, and damn the grand abstractions.

Ambitious ... [Desmond] puts a clear challenge to readers, prodding us to face the uncomfortable question of how we are all implicated. But he also proposes solutions.

Lively ... A hopeful book, one that reframes its titular problem sensibly and helps us see how we could be part of solving it.

[Poverty, by America] shows how wealthy and middle class Americans knowingly and unknowingly perpetuate a broken system that keeps poor people poor. It’s not an easy problem to fix, but through in-depth research and original reporting, the acclaimed sociologist offers solutions that would help spread America’s wealth and make everyone more prosperous.

With Poverty, by America, [Desmond] blends history, research and firsthand reporting to show how the wealthy punish the poor and keep people living in poverty, both purposefully and without realizing. Passionate and empathetic.