Monday, December 24, 2018

Evicted:Poverty & Profit in the American City; Matthew Desmond


AUTHOR: Matthew Desmond
PUBLISHER: Random House (audio)/Crown eBook
PUB. YEAR: 2018
SETTING:  Milwaukee, WI
FORMAT:  - audio download
RATING: 3.5/5 stars



In Evicted, the author a Sociology professor at Princeton explores low income housing issues faced by the poor in Milwaukee, WI.  As part of his research he lived in various low income communities in Milwaukee, which included a trailer park with mostly white low income people and also a rooming house with mainly black people. Gathering information from renters, landlords, housing courts and court files, he documents specifics on (6) families and (2) landlords.  The findings are at times shocking.

Many of the individuals who found themselves in dire situations have made poor life choices but, others, born into poverty, simply never stood a chance for a better life or the opportunity to rise above poverty.  Being poor, with not enough money to get by sets some individuals up to be victimized by others: payday loan advances, rent to own furniture at ridiculous payment fees and super high interest credit card and loan rates as well. They simply move from one crisis situation to another.

Evicted is an eye-opening book that examines the issues faced by the poor relative to housing.  I thought it was well-researched but, not that well written, the flow just seemed off.  I am happy I gave it a try though. 

14 comments:

  1. Yep, sometimes the flow doesn't. Merry Christmas Eve!

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  2. That's a topic that really interests me so I'm sad to see it wasn't that well written.

    Merry Christmas!

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  3. Oh, it sounds good, but writing that doesn't flow can ruin a good thing. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I am happy you gave it a try also because I had not heard of the book before.

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    1. Important topic, I believe it was written for a dissertation.

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  5. This sounds like it could have been really interesting, too bad it didn't quite work for you.

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  6. Hi Diane,
    I've heard that this is quite an important book, dealing with one of the major issues that perpetuates generational poverty. I'm so glad that you reported on it--I should read it, even though I have already read its observations and conclusions in other articles.

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    1. I read it was a thesis for a Phd project, but yes it's important people understand this issue and the abuses out there.

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  7. Important issue, too bad the telling wasn't as good as it needed to be.

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