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American Way Of Poverty: How The Other Half Still Lives (2014)

by Sasha Abramsky(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1306435390 (ISBN13: 9781306435390)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Nation Books

review 1: Abramsky's book makes the case that both generational, ingrained poverty and the "new" poverty that developed with the recession are part and parcel of the same problem. Poverty is poverty is poverty: living it feels the same, no matter how you got there. In the first half of his book he explores what creates poverty, how people try to cope with it, and the effects it has on adults, children and communities, and, although it dragged the reader--me--down emotionally, I found it very well written and interesting. The second half of the book, though, didn't hold my interest as well. In it he talks about policies that could drastically improve the lives of the millions who live in poverty, and I'm sure that, if initiated, most of his ideas would perform as intended. The ... moreproblem, though, seems deeper than finding and developing anti-poverty programs. As long as a huge portion of our population believes that the poor are living in poverty because they don't have the gumption to "pull themselves up by their own boot straps," talking about policies that could remedy the situation seems pointless, as any politician supporting those policies would not be able to make headway getting them enacted. That huge obstacle, I must admit, detracted severely from my interest in the second half, so that, by the last 75 or so pages, I was skimming and by the last 25 pages I was barely doing that. I wish I had more confidence in the voters of the United States. If I did, this book would have most likely gotten 5 stars!
review 2: By far the most important book of the past year. In its first part, Abramsky examines poverty afflicting the country, from the quiet suburbs of Stockton, to the Mississippi Delta long-ago discussed by RFK, to the modern bedlam of Detroit, to mining and steel towns that sink into the landscape. He interviews people of all backgrounds and ages, and talks about how opportunity and policy have changed them. In the second part of the book, Abramsky looks at how Reagan and neoconservatism have affected policy, and how our country has slid into a Dickensian dystopia since the Great Recession. Abramsky suggests that the only way to change America for the better is to drastically change the policies that we have put in place. less

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