The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America

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A sweeping and surprising new understanding of Americas places of most extreme poverty, drawn from original data-driven research, from the authors of the acclaimed$2.00 a Day:Living on Almost Nothing in America

"This book challenges and enrages, humbles and indictsand forces you to see American poverty in a whole new light.Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prizewinning author ofEvicted

Three of the nations top researchers known for taking on key mysteries about poverty deliver a new, multi-dimensional way of measuring deep disadvantage in every county in the nation as well as in its 500 most-populated cities.By turning the lens of disadvantage from the individual to the community, the authors uncover a surprising picture.Among the 100 most deeply disadvantaged places in the U.S., the majority are rural, many of them rarely if ever researched; only 12 are cities.

Through engaged ethnographic research, deep historical understanding, and riveting storytelling, the authors paint portraits of places within the three regions of America they identify as actual internal colonies within our nation. In rural Leflore County, MS, in the Cotton Belt of the Deep South, we see residents livingand dyingwith homicide rates as high as anywhere else in the nation. In Clay County, KY, where Big Coal once ruled, the social infrastructure is so eroded that residents say theres nothing to do but drugs.In Crystal City in South Texas, a town still proud to be known as the spinach capital of the world, cheerleaders revolt in response to white quotas and a legacy of unequal schools. The unfolding revelation inThe Injustice of Placeis what these regions have in commona history of raw, intensive resource extraction and human exploitation. This history and its reverberations are facts, these acclaimed and engaged public scholars convince, that must shape a new War on Poverty, 60 years after LBJs unfinished first one.

Reviews

"Three of the nation's top poverty scholars deliver a profound inquiry into the most disadvantaged communities in America. Combining historical and statistical analysis with on-the-ground interviewing, the authors present novel and provocative arguments for many social ills that plague these regions. This book challenges and enrages, humbles and indicts--and forces you to see American poverty in a whole new light." -- Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

"Captivating and insightful, The Injustice of Place sheds new light on how the places in which we live shape so many aspects of our lives -- from our jobs to our health to our children's prospects. By interweaving big data with on-the-ground ethnography and historical analysis, the authors exemplify the best of social science today, and will surely help frame policy discussions in the years to come." -- Raj Chetty, William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and recipient of the John Bates Clark medal, given to the economist under 40 whose work is judged to have made the most significant contribution to the field

"Woven with vivid, first-hand accounts and bolstered by fresh data, Injustice of Place convincingly knots present-day disadvantage to the long tail of racism and extractive capitalism. This book delivers new insights into solving today's most intractable injustices." -- Mona Hanna-Attisha, Flint, MI, pediatrician and author of What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

"There is no book on poverty in America quite like this one. Original reporting and rigorous data analysis reveal a living history of injustice maintained through corruption, resource extraction, and violence; but the book doesn't leave us there. We meet everyday people who, even in the face of backlash from the economic and political elite, try to bring about change. Incisive, surprising, enraging, and hopeful, The Injustice of Place is the book on poverty we've needed all along." -- Reuben Jonathan Miller, 2022 MacArthur Fellow and author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration

"A remarkable book that could very well change the way we think about poverty in the United States." -- New York Times on $2 a Day

"Profound and moving." -- NPR's Marketplace on $2 a Day

"Harrowing . . . [An] important and heart-rending book, in the tradition of Michael Harrington's The Other America." -- Los Angeles Times on $2 a Day

"This searing look at extreme poverty deftly mixes policy research and heartrending narratives.... Mixing academic seriousness and deft journalistic storytelling, this work may well move readers to positive action." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review, on $2 a Day

Author Bio

KATHRYN J. EDIN is the William Church Osborne Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. The author of nine books, Edin is widely recognized for using both quantitative research and direct, in-depth observation to illuminate key mysteries about poverty: "In a field of poverty experts who rarely meet the poor, Edin usefully defies convention" (New York Times).