Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Poverty and Power examines structural inequality in American society with a focus on the issue of poverty. The third edition features new material throughout, including discussions of the 2016 election and current political climate, the geography of poverty, the weakening of the safety net, the declining quality of employment opportunities, and more.

Many Americans believe that people are poor because of individual failings, such as lack of skills or work ethic. Poverty and Power challenges this view, showing that American poverty instead is a structural problem, resulting from failings of our political, economic, cultural, and social systems. The book examines the social forces and institutional problems that contribute to growing inequality and the persistence of poverty in the United States. Throughout the book, the author compares individualistic and structural approaches and makes a case for the superiority of a structural perspective on American poverty.

• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
• Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America
• The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist (National Poverty Center Series on Poverty and Public Policy)
• Born on the Fourth of July: 40th Anniversary Edition
• Sidewalk
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
• Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys (New Perspectives in Crime, Deviance, and Law)
• No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City
• Righteous Dopefiend (California Series in Public Anthropology)
• Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People (Poetics; 24)