LibGuides: Online Book Display: Poverty in America

Selected Books for Poverty in America Awareness Month

Books

Poverty in America by Tamara Thompson, ed.
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2016
An estimated 43.1 million Americans live in poverty. While the government strives to have resources for citizens troubled by poverty, many Americans feel there is not enough being done. This edition explores issues related to poverty in America. Article topics include whether or not poverty is a growing problem in the United Sates, its causes, and ways to reduce poverty for Americans.
Rural Poverty in the United States by Ann Tickamyer, Jennifer Sherman, & Jennifer Warlick, eds.
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2017
America's rural areas have always held a disproportionate share of the nation's poorest populations. Rural Poverty in the United States examines why. What is it about the geography, demography, and history of rural communities that keeps them poor? In a comprehensive analysis that extends from the Civil War to the present, this book looks at access to human and social capital; food security; healthcare and the environment; homelessness; gender roles and relations; racial inequalities; and immigration trends to isolate the underlying causes of persistent rural poverty.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Call Number: HD7287.96.U6 D47 2017
Publication Date: 2017
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. It transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America's most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
The Book of the Poor: Who They Are, What They Say, and How To End Their Poverty by Kenan Heise
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2012
This stirring work takes readers on a heartbreaking, illuminating, and inspiring journey into the homes and lives of the 16 percent who live below the poverty threshold. Author and retired Chicago Tribune reporter Kenan Heise culls 50 years of his published interviews with the poor and destitute to allow them to tell their own stories in their own voices to provide a sobering call to action. With full discussions on a myriad of topics -- including the history of poverty, the use of drugs and alcohol among the poor, the lasting result of Reaganomics, the importance of minimum wage, and the relationship between the media and the poor -- The Book of the Poor provides clear and concrete steps that can be taken to end poverty in America.
Poverty in America: A Handbook by John Iceland
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2013
The United States is among the most affluent nations in the world and has its largest economy; nevertheless, it has more poverty than most countries with similar standards of living. Growing income inequality and the Great Recession have made the problem worse. In this thoroughly revised edition, Iceland takes a new look at this issue by examining why poverty remains pervasive, what it means to be poor in America today, which groups are most likely to be poor, the root causes of poverty, and the effects of policy on poverty. This new edition also includes completely updated data and extended discussions of poverty in the context of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements as well as new chapters on the Great Recession and global poverty. In doing so this book provides the most recent information available on patterns and trends in poverty and engages in an open and accessible manner in current critical debates.
The War on Poverty: A Retrospective by Kyle Farmbry, ed.
Call Number: HC110.P63 W373 2014
Publication Date: 2014
In January of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." Over the next several years, the United States launched several programs aimed at drastically reducing the level of poverty throughout the nation. Now fifty years later, we have a number of lessons related to what has and has not worked in the fight against poverty. This book is a collection of chapters by both researchers and practitioners studying and addressing matters of poverty as they intersect with a number of broader social challenges such as health care, education, and criminal justice issues.
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn J. Edin & H. Luke Shaefer
Call Number: HC110.P6 E343 2015
ISBN: 9780544303188
Publication Date: 2015
A revelatory account of poverty in America so deep that we, as a country, don't think it exists. The authors illuminate a troubling trend: a low-wage labor market that increasingly fails to deliver a living wage, and a growing but hidden landscape of survival strategies among America's extreme poor. More than a powerful exposé, $2.00 a Day delivers new evidence and new ideas to our national debate on income inequality.
Worlds Apart: Poverty and Politics in Rural America by Cynthia M. Duncan
Call Number: HC110.P6 D86 2014
Publication Date: 2014
First published in 1999, Worlds Apart examined the nature of poverty through the stories of real people in three remote rural areas of the United States: New England, Appalachia, and the Mississippi Delta. In this new edition, Duncan returns to her original research, interviewing some of the same people as well as some new key informants. Duncan provides powerful new insights into the dynamics of poverty, politics, and community change.
Redistributing the Poor: Jails, Hospitals, and the Crisis of Law and Fiscal Austerity by Armando Lara-Millán
Call Number: HV9469 .L267 2021
ISBN: 9780197507896
Publication Date: 2021
In Redistributing the Poor, ethnographer and historical sociologist Armando Lara-Millan takes us into the day-to-day operations of running the largest hospital and jail system in the world and argues that such received wisdom is a drastic mischaracterization of the way that states govern urban poverty at the turn of the 21st century. Rather than focus on our underinvestment of health and overinvestment of criminal justice, his idea of "redistributing the poor" draws attention to how state agencies circulate people between different institutional spaces in such a way that generates revenue for some agencies, cuts costs for others, and projects illusions that services have been legally rendered.
Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty by Elaine Weiss & Paul Reville
Call Number: LC215 .W46 2019
Publication Date: 2019
In Broader, Bolder, Better, the authors make a compelling case for a fundamental change in the way we view education. They argue for a large-scale expansion of community-school partnerships in order to provide holistic, integrated student supports (ISS) from cradle to career, including traditional wraparound services like health, mental health, nutrition, and family supports, as well as expanded access to opportunities such as early childhood education, afterschool activities, and summer enrichment programs.

Poverty in America Awareness Month

January is National Poverty in America Awareness Month. The poverty rate in the United States increased from 9.3% in June to 11.7% in November, the biggest increase in one year since 1960. The federal poverty line is $26,200 for a family of four. Poverty can cause malnutrition and hunger; lack of proper medical care; social discrimination and exclusion; and limited access to education and other basic services.

Housing affects almost everything: it plays a critical role in providing stability to poor families. Housing poverty includes energy and fuel poverty, lack of access to water, and lack of sanitation. The housing market does not produce enough affordable housing, and the number of households paying more than 30% of household income for rent is at historic levels. Families with severe rent burdens are left with very little room for other necessities. Often, they face eviction, sometimes repeatedly, or in worst cases, end up homeless.

Source: https://www.southernregionalahec.org/