About this item
Selected as A Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times Book ReviewFifty years after Michael Harrington published his groundbreaking book The Other America, in which he chronicled the lives of people excluded from the Age of Affluence, poverty in America is back with a vengeance. It is made up of both the long-term chronically poor and new working poor—the tens of millions of victims of a broken economy and an ever more dysfunctional political system. In many ways, for the majority of Americans, financial insecurity has become the new norm.The American Way of Poverty shines a light on this travesty. Sasha Abramsky brings the effects of economic inequality out of the shadows and, ultimately, suggests ways for moving toward a fairer and more equitable social contract.
About the Author
I was born and raised in the UK, studied politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, and moved to the US in my early 20s. I have lived and worked in London, New York, and in California. My writings have been published in the Nation magazine, the New Yorker online, the New York Times, Atlantic, Mother Jones, Truthout, Sacramento Magazine, Slate, Salon, and many other publications in the US. In the UK I have written for a number of publications, including the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Statesman.Over the past twenty years, I have focused mainly on social justice themes, though have also written book reviews, travel essays, articles on sports and on music, and other areas of life that pique my interest. In addition to the articles that I write, I am also the author of nine books, ranging from books on criminal justice to a memoir about my grandparents, through to my most recent book, a biography of the sportswoman Lottie Dod, titled "Little Wonder: The Fabulous Story of Lottie Dod, the World's First Female Sports Superstar.I live in Sacramento with my wife and kids, and teach writing part-time at the University of California at Davis. When I am not writing, I am traveling -- I have visited somewhere in the region of 50 countries over the years -- playing tennis, skiing, reading, or sitting at my piano playing music.
