poverty
Writing from both sides of the economic divide
Sarah Smarsh brings her sharp reporting skills to her family’s history of rural poverty.
A different kind of poverty memoir
Dana Trent’s heartbreaking and hilarious book eschews the conventional American rags-to-riches arc.
Impoverished by design
Sociologist Mark Rank shows how the United States systematically produces economic vulnerability.
Give to the one who asks of you
I’m on this man’s side, even though I didn’t give him any money. Right?
Domestic poverty and who it serves
Matthew Desmond unties the knot of being poor in the US—and shows the rest of us that we hold the strings.
SNAP under siege
Federal debt default has been averted. The price is more restrictions on a critical program that feeds hungry Americans.
No justice in New Haven
Journalist Nicholas Dawidoff tells the tragic story of Bobby Johnson and his neighborhood on the poor, Black side of town.
Alleviating domestic child poverty is not complicated
We were just doing it, and then we stopped.
Saumya Roy lets Mumbai’s garbage pickers speak for themselves
Castaway Mountain gives voice to families who have been impoverished by the whims of the powerful.
Stories of the unhoused faithful
Listening to the poorest and most dislocated, Susan J. Dunlap hears the music of faith.
The recent increase in SNAP benefits was long overdue
Food stamps may be the most effective tool we have for fighting domestic poverty.
Paying the child tax credit forward
It’s a terrific policy for fighting child poverty. But my family doesn’t need the money.
Lisa Donovan tells the stories behind the recipes
Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger exposes the misogyny within the restaurant industry.
Donna Haskins defeats the devil
Onaje X. O. Woodbine’s book about a Black woman’s life is a model of ethnographic work that centers the voice of its subject.
A memoir of hardship and gratitude in Appalachia
Cassie Chambers tells family stories and considers the history of the people of Owsley County, Kentucky.
How the security culture has burdened women
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz shows how the post-9/11 US has intensified control of women’s bodies.
A maid bears witness
Stephanie Land's memoir reveals the intimacy and power of a housecleaner’s labor.