Matthew Desmond in conversation with Andrea Young - Poverty, by America
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of "Evicted" reimagines the debate on poverty, making a "provocative and compelling" (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.
A Cappella Books and The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library are honored to welcome Matthew Desmond to The Carter Center to discuss his acclaimed new book, "Poverty, by America," on Monday, June 26, 2023, at 7 PM. The author will appear in conversation with Andrea Young, Executive Director of the ACLU of Georgia.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is general admission at The Carter Center. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue.
Customers who pre-purchase a a signed copy of the book via the link below will automatically be added to our reserved seating list. Please choose "in-store pick-up" at checkout to receive your book at the event.
About the Book
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.
Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.
About the Author
Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. He is the author of four books, including "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" (2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate.”
About the Conversation Partner
Andrea Young is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Prior to taking the helm of the statewide affiliate of the ACLU in January 2017, Young was an Adjunct Professor at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. For many years, she served as executive director at the Andrew J. Young Foundation, producing a nationally-syndicated series of documentary films and other programs on themes of civil and human rights.
Young is the author of "Life Lessons My Mother Taught Me"; co-author of "Andrew Young and the Making of Modern Atlanta," and collaborated with former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young in writing, editing, and researching "An Easy Burden: Civil Rights and the Transformation of America." She has been recognized nationally for her work as an advocate for civil and human rights.
