Open Book/Open Mind, Matthew Desmond, "Poverty, by America"

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Princeton sociologist discusses his #1 New York Times bestseller on the causes of poverty with Andrea Elliott, a Pulitzer-winning author and New York Times journalist.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED BUT THERE ARE STILL SEATS. COME TO THE CHURCH AND WE WILL TRY TO ACCOMMODATE YOU. The program will take place at First Congregational Church of Montclair, 40 S. Fullerton Avenue in Montclair. The event is free but registration is required. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Thanks to the generosity of Partners for Health, we will be giving away signed copies of the book to the first 150 check-ins who have not already received advance copies.

After the discussion, there will be a Q&A period and a book signing and sale with Watchung Booksellers. Matthew Desmond will personalize copies of the books for those who wait, as well as copies of his first book, "Evicted." Andrea Elliott will also be signing copies of her book, "Invisible Child." 

Open Book / Open Mind is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, the New Jersey Council on Humanities, Anonymous, Rosemary Iversen, Diana and Joe Lunin, David and Mary Lee Jones and an anonymous donor. We are also grateful for the generous support of our in-kind sponsors, First Congregational Church of Montclair, The George, and Amanti Vino. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate.

This event is co-sponsored by Partners for Health Foundation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. He is the author of four books, including "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate.” He experienced significant economic hardship as a child and was at times unhoused during college and graduate school. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Listed as a Best Book of the Year in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Public Library, Esquire, Library Journal. 

“Provocative and compelling . . . [Desmond] packs in a sweeping array of examples and numbers to support his thesis and . . . the accumulation has the effect of shifting one’s brain ever so slightly to change the entire frame of reference.”—NPR

"In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.
 
"Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom."—Penguin Random House

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Andrea Elliott is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who has documented the lives of poor Americans, Muslim immigrants and other people on the margins of power. She is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of "Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City," which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. She is also the recipient of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, a George Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and was awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

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