Poverty, by America

Desmond recognizes that he is adding to a large body of literature on the subject of poverty in America, which he characterizes as having mostly focused on descriptions of life in poverty and appeals to sympathy for their plight. By contrast, he uses the phrase “by America” in his book’s title to implicate the social systems that sustain American poverty. Desmond’s book is brief and focuses on its own argument, so it lacks a more comprehensive literature review. A more complete glimpse into the works that he is engaging with illustrates the context of Desmond’s case. He mentions the work of photojournalist Jacob Riis, activist Jane Addams, and Professor Michael Harrington as all contributing to the awareness of poverty without answering the question of “why,” but there is ample literature that attempts to combine description with analysis.

Arguably, such works have not so much failed to ask why but have not been properly comprehensive in their explanation. One of the most famous recent examples is Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed (2001), an instant classic that quickly became required reading in many college courses. Trained as a scientist, Ehrenreich spent many years as a journalist and activist before going undercover as a waitress, maid, and retail worker, recounting her own difficulties while focusing on the plight of those who do it as an actual living rather than as a part-time sociological experiment.