Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City: Difference between revisions

| name = Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

| image = Evicted (Matthew Desmond).png

| alt =

| caption = Cover of first edition

| author = [[Matthew Desmond]]

| audio_read_by = [[Dion Graham]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/247816/evicted/ |title=Evicted by Matthew Desmond |website=[[Penguin Random House Audio]] |access-date=March 26, 2020}}</ref>

| cover_artist = Nina Mangalanayagam (floor photo)<ref name="Copyright">{{cite book|author=Matthew Desmond|title=Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City|url=https://archive.org/details/evicted_des_2016_00_4022|url-access=registration|year=2016|publisher=Crown Publishers|isbn=978-0-553-44743-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/evicted_des_2016_00_4022/page/6 6]}}</ref><br>Pavel Shynkarou (wall photo)<ref name="Copyright"/><br>Jake Nicolella (design)<ref name="Copyright"/>

| country = United States

| language = English

| subject = [[Sociology]], [[poverty]], [[low-income housing]]

| set_in = [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]], U.S.

| publisher = [[Crown BooksPublishing Group|Crown]]

| pub_date = March 2016

| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|hardback]])

| pages = 432

'''''Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City''''' is a 2016 non-fictionnonfiction book by the American author[[Sociology|sociologist]] [[Matthew Desmond]]. Set in the poorest areas of [[Milwaukee|Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], during the [[Wisconsin2007–2008 financial crisis]] and its immediate aftermath, the book follows eight families [[Eviction in the United States|struggling to pay rent]] to their [[landlord]]s, duringmany theof whom face [[financialEviction crisisin ofthe 2007–2008United States|eviction]]. Through a year of ethnographic fieldwork, Desmond's goal in the book is to highlight the issues of [[extreme poverty]], [[affordable housing]], and economic exploitation in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/247816/evicted-by-matthew-desmond/|title=Evicted |author=Desmond, Matthew |publisher=PenguinRandomHouse |date=2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://crownpublishing.com/archives/feature/23582|title=Feature: ''Poverty and Profit In the American City'' by Matthew Desmond|publisher= The Crown Publishing Group|access-date=May 27, 2017}}</ref>

''Evicted'' was well-received and won multiple book awards such as the [[2017 Pulitzer Prize]] for [[Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction|General Nonfiction]] and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. The Pulitzer committee selected the book "for a deeply researched exposé that showed how mass evictions after the 2008 economic crash were less a consequence than a cause of poverty".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=The Pulitzer Committee|title=''Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City'', by Matthew Desmond |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/matthew-desmond |access-date=May 27, 2017 |website=pulitzer[[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer.org]]}}</ref>

=== Background ===

In an interview with ''[[The Atlantic]]'', author Matthew Desmond expresses his goal of writing about poverty through the lens of eviction, focusing on relationships and interactions among landlords, tenants, and judges.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=White |first=Gillian B. |date=March 1, 2016-03-01 |title=America's Insidious Eviction Problem |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/eviction-matthew-desmond-housing/471375/ |access-date=December 6, 2021-12-06 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |language=en}}</ref> According to Desmond, “evictionevictions [acts] "as a cause, not just a condition, of poverty".”<ref name=":0" /> He picked the setting of Milwaukee, believing that it captures a broad national experience from an under-represented urban city.<ref name=":0" />

=== Summary ===

Arleen Belle, a member of one of the eight families Desmond documents, is a blackBlack single mother struggling to secure housing with her low income.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Pollitt |first=KatieKatha |date=April 7, 2016-04-07 |title=Evicted by Matthew Desmond review – what if the problem of poverty is that it’sit's profitable to other people? |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/07/evicted-poverty-and-profit-in-the-american-city-matthew-desmond-review|url-status=live |access-date=December 6, 2021-12-06 |website=the[[The Guardian]] |language=en}}</ref> Lamar, a blackBlack man who had lost both of his legs, has to look after a group of boys while burdened with debt.<ref name=":2" /> DesmondScott, alsoa narrateswhite themale experiencesnurse, ofstruggles Scott,to pay rent in a whitetrailer malepark nursewhile struggling with [[heroin]] addiction.<ref name=":2" /> The book is centered around the families’ interactions with their two landlords: Sherrena and QuentinTobin.<ref name=":1" /> Through following the lives of these families and individuals, Desmond illustrates the psychological, legal, and discriminatory aspects of eviction and how it is intertwined with poverty.<ref name=":1" />

=== Genre =and style ==

According to Jennifer Senior from the ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''Evicted'' “is"is a regal hybrid of ethnography and policy reporting".”<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Senior|first=Jennifer|date=2016-02-February 21, 2016|title=Review: In ‘Evicted'Evicted,’' Home Is an Elusive Goal for America’sAmerica's Poor|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/books/evicted-book-review-matthew-desmond.html|access-date=December 6, 2021-12-06|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> To complete this book, Desmond conducted fieldwork in Milwaukee from 2008 to 2009; he first lived in a [[trailer park]] known as Central Mobile Home Park to observe the residents, followed by a rooming house on the north side of the city run by Sherrena and her husband Quentin.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Martin|first=Isaac William|date=2017|editor-last=Chaskin|editor-first=Robert J.|editor2-last=Joseph|editor2-first=Mark L.|editor3-last=Desmond|editor3-first=Matthew|editor4-last=McCabe|editor4-first=Brian J.|title=New Sociology of Housing|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26425007|journal=Contemporary Sociology|volume=46|issue=4|pages=392–396|doi=10.1177/0094306117714499a |jstor=26425007 |s2cid=148988707 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref> After interviewing Milwaukee renters and defendants in eviction courts and analyzing court records, Desmond began drafting ''Evicted''.<ref name=":4" />