Sweep out

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Recommended by Professor Xiang Biao, selected as one of Barack Obama and Bill Gates' best books of the year, and a nonfiction masterpiece that has won praise from countless celebrities and media outlets.
In 2019, it was named one of Time's Top 10 Nonfiction Books of the 2010s; in 2018, it was named one of the Top 10 Books of the Year for Shenzhen Reading Month, a Sina Books list, a Book of the Year for Curiosity Daily, a Book of the Year for Interface Culture, and a Douban Social Science and Documentary Book of the Year; it won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction; in 2016, it was named a New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year, a Book Critics Circle Award, and a Best Book of the Year by dozens of international media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Fortune, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the Los Angeles Times. ★ This book explores the daily lives of the lower classes in the United States, uncovering the veil of the American Dream and the sinister depths of wealth disparity. In the United States, a representative of developed countries, housing is also a major challenge for the poor. Compared to the wealthy, their homes are not only older, dilapidated, and smaller, but also command higher rents than those in affluent areas. This stark disparity in housing conditions directly shapes the starkly different experiences of the rich and the poor in the United States.
The stories of eight families, including a teenage mother, a single father, a drug-addicted male nurse, and a threatening female landlord, chart dozens of distinct life paths. The characters in this book encompass all corners of American society: white and black, a 19-year-old pregnant mother, a father who lost both legs and raises two sons alone, and a female landlord who drives around collecting rent all day. What unites these disparate people is a common issue: housing.
Work histories, interpersonal relationships, criminal records, and financial situations paint a vivid picture of the characters, faithfully presenting the faces of those at the bottom of society. The author meticulously observes and records every aspect of their daily lives: some work in fast food restaurants, others rely on welfare; some use drugs, some rob; some can vacation in Jamaica, while others can't even afford rent. Countless details of life combine to create vivid faces.
★Courts, housing authorities, police stations, welfare agencies... Through the way Americans deal with the government, you can understand the institutional mechanisms of the United States. The people in the book often deal with the government for housing, and the author followed the people in the book to various agencies and departments, witnessing tenants tearfully begging judges to grant leniency in punishment, and ruthless sheriffs evicting poor tenants... Although rents are regulated by the market, the influence of the government is always lingering.
From drug dens to RV campgrounds and fire scenes... Journey through a dazzling array of social venues, and fully experience the living conditions of the American poor. The surrounding environment not only determines the quality of the property but also impacts the lives of those who live there. Some of the houses in this book are located in warm and cohesive communities, others have been destroyed by fire, and still others are not even communities at all, but simply camps made up of hundreds of RVs, where people sell drugs 24/7...
Without academic airs, abstruse concepts, or complex terminology, this book presents a sociological fieldwork account accessible to everyone. During her research, the author moved into the communities where the individuals in the book lived, chatting, playing cards, living and eating with them, helping them move, and babysitting their children. This humble attitude not only bridges the gap between them but also imbues the author with a down-to-earth and accessible writing style and narrative, making her academic work as accessible and readable as a novel.
"Sweeping the Door" is a serious academic work. However, it differs significantly from the typical academic work; it lacks theoretical assumptions, frameworks, or even concepts. The entire book is like a profound documentary, moving from one scene to another. Author Matthew Desmond's straightforward and detailed descriptions, like close-ups, directly present each character's expressions, tone, feelings, and thoughts. What impressed me most was Matthew's ability to "see within what we see." We often ignore what's right in front of us, yet we often also see things that don't even exist.
—Xiang Biao (Professor of Anthropology, Oxford University)
To understand the complex web of problems that drive poverty, read this book about Milwaukee's eviction crisis. Desmond paints a vivid portrait of life for those living in poverty in the United States. More than any other book I've read, "Evicted" gave me a clearer understanding of what it's like to be poor in America.
Bill Gates' sensitive, achingly beautiful ethnography challenges us to rethink the problem of poverty in America—the difficulty of even having a roof over our heads.
—Robert Putnam (Harvard University professor and author of Bowling Alone)
Matthew Desmond, a Harvard scholar, a sociologist, or perhaps you could call him an ethnographer, but I'd also call him a journalist, has set a new standard for reporting on poverty with this book.
—Barbara Ehrenreich, renowned American investigative journalist and author of My Life at the Bottom of the Class
This nonfiction work chronicles the lives of the poor in a wealthy country, focusing on the dark corners beyond the city's neon lights and the escalating housing crisis in the United States. Sociologist Matthew Desmond visits impoverished communities and recounts the life stories of eight American families on the brink of despair. This is an enlightening book about poverty and eviction, a call for action and change, and offers insights into modern urban development and economic issues.
This is a serious academic work. Yet, like a novel, it allows for a complete immersion in the daily lives of grassroots Milwaukee residents. Matthew has taken the anthropological fieldwork method to a new level. In Matthew's narrative, every person is vividly alive. Without Matthew's dedication and this grounded fieldwork, the story of those in Milwaukee who couldn't find an apartment despite making dozens of phone calls would remain largely undiscovered.
——"Beijing News Book Review Weekly"
Desmonds explains how America's forced eviction policies transform abject poverty for some into lucrative profits for others. Whether or not to stay in the city isn't a game of natural selection, but rather a product of exploitative market forces, not just low income. This is the crucial lesson "Swept Away" offers us today.
——Interface Culture
"Evicted" is a deeply compassionate account of the American housing system and its impact on every aspect of life, from education to parenting. Few books of the past decade have done more to open Americans' minds to the limits of the American Dream, offering insightful reporting that calls for new policies and a fundamental need: a roof over our heads.
--"era"
With its in-depth research, "Evicted" reveals the connection between large-scale evictions and poverty since the 2008 US economic crisis: being poor does not mean being evicted; but once evicted, people will become poorer and poorer.
——2017 Pulitzer Prize for Best Nonfiction Award Ceremony
In 2007, the US subprime mortgage crisis erupted, sending housing prices plummeting. Some landlords seized the opportunity to buy properties in slums and rent them out to the poor, turning low-priced homes into a gold mine.
Among the poor renters are single mothers with multiple children, drug-addicted but kind-hearted nurses, and disabled people who work for their landlords to pay their rent. They live side by side with insects, rats, and ants, facing perpetually clogged pipes and unpredictable water, electricity, and gas outages. Even so, if they default on rent, they're evicted. The landlord then rents the apartment to someone else, and the cycle repeats itself...
Landlords, tenants, government agencies, the private housing market: who profits? And who is responsible for poverty? Sociologist Matthew Desmond traveled to two slums, interviewed over thirty landlords, visited eviction court thousands of times, and pored over countless archival materials. Through the lives of eight impoverished families, he recounts their arguments, struggles, and pleas over housing and survival, presenting a vivid portrait of America's underclass and exploring the root causes of the growing poverty and wealth.

2022-05-01

山西教育出版社

Ideal Country

584

9787570322879