‘Poverty Is an Injury’

As the United States heads into the hottest part of the presidential election season, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are fielding dueling economic plans to lower housing and food costs and create higher-paying jobs. In “Poverty, By America,” the selection for UMD’s 2024-25 First Year Book, author Matthew Desmond argues that it’s not just policies that account for why so many people are scraping by in a nation of such wealth, but exploitation at every level of power—from big banks to wealthy homeowners who oppose building affordable housing nearby.

“Poverty is an injury, a taking,” writes Desmond, a Princeton University sociologist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his previous book, “Evicted.” “Tens of millions of Americans do not end up poor by a mistake of history or personal conduct. Poverty exists because some wish and will it to.”

Since 1993, the First Year Book program has offered Terps the chance to read a book and discuss the ideas within it. Faculty members are encouraged to incorporate the book into their lesson plans and staffers can plan programming around the themes of the material. Past books have included “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, “The Signal and the Noise” by Nate Silver and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot.

“Poverty, By America,” a No. 1 New York Times bestseller in 2023, is “well-suited to the current moment,” said Leeanne Dunsmore, director of strategic initiatives in the Office of Undergraduate Studies, who oversees the First Year Book program. “The issues around poverty are complex, which means we have the opportunity to explore them from a number of different disciplinary perspectives.”

In the School of Public Health, Kevin Roy, professor of family science, plans to use “Poverty, By America” in his course, “Unequal Families: Health, Wealth, Race and Place in the United States.” Desmond’s book explores the unique reasons why poverty is so pervasive in the world’s wealthiest country, Roy said. “He’s really good about clear, concise language saying, ‘This is how we create poverty and benefit from it, so it isn’t going away soon unless we take that into account.’”

Last semester, students in the course read the book as they participated in what Roy called a “poverty simulation,” creating a monthly budget based on how much they or their parents spend on groceries, rent and other expenses. Then he asked them to do the same based on the poverty line, and then again based on extreme poverty—about half the poverty line—where some 10% of Americans find themselves.

“They’re shocked at how little money that is,” said Roy.

Jui Ramaprasad, associate professor of information systems in the Robert H. Smith School of Business, said that “Poverty, By America” demonstrates how the problem of poverty can be tackled.

“We’ve solved a lot of other big problems. We have technology that can create images or write songs, but we still haven’t solved a fundamental societal issue that other countries have solved,” she said. “I hope the book opens some people’s eyes.”