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

A sweeping and surprising new understanding of extreme poverty in America from the authors of the acclaimed $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. “This book forces you to see American poverty in a whole new light.” (Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America and Evicted) Three of the nation’s top scholars ­– known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America – turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural, revealing a hidden landscape of American rural poverty. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there.This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, poring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and entrenched government corruption, the “internal colonies” in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse. The unfolding revelation in The Injustice of Place is not about what sets these places apart, but about what they have in common—a history of raw, intensive resource extraction and human exploitation. This history and its reverberations demand a reckoning with American public policy and a commitment to wage a new War on Poverty, with the unrelenting focus on our nation’s places of deepest need.  This landmark work of data-driven social science reveals the powerful forces that create injustice in place:The Geography of Disadvantage: Go beyond the headlines about urban crises to discover why the most disadvantaged communities in America are overwhelmingly rural, from Appalachia to the Deep South.Historical Roots of Inequality: Trace how a history of intensive resource extraction and human exploitation created "internal colonies" that continue to shape the health, wealth, and futures of families today.Barriers to Social Mobility: Understand through a data-driven analysis how local economies, systemic racism, and government corruption conspire to limit opportunities for generations.A Call for a New War on Poverty: Explore a powerful closing argument for a renewed commitment to public policy focused on our nation’s places of deepest need. Read more