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A review by katsbooks
Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending Us Poverty by Colleen Shaddox, Joanne Samuel Goldblum
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
"It is past time to stop judging and give that hungry person a fish."
"Advocates are simply people who refuse to go away."
“Poverty is a self-perpetuating ill.”
"Racism and economic oppression are each other's evil twin."
This book is a very humanizing look at poverty in the United States. I don't think I've ever read a book that really addresses the way poverty is seen as a moral failing in the US and how easy that makes it for people to dismiss the systems and struggles that has caused poverty. I really appreciate the human face the authors put on those that are struggling in this system.
The other thing I really appreciated about this book was just how readable it was. I generally listen to non-fiction on audio because it tends to not hold my attention. However, this book easily did so. Each chapter breaks down an element of poverty and includes subheadings to break down the text. Each chapter is no more than 10-15 pages long either so it is really digestable. I especially liked the advocacy pointers at the end of each chapter. It helped tie all of the pieces of the chapter together and gave the reader actionable next steps. So often, books like this simply lay out the problem and some possible solutions but this book went a step further and listed actions that actually feel doable. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
"Advocates are simply people who refuse to go away."
“Poverty is a self-perpetuating ill.”
"Racism and economic oppression are each other's evil twin."
This book is a very humanizing look at poverty in the United States. I don't think I've ever read a book that really addresses the way poverty is seen as a moral failing in the US and how easy that makes it for people to dismiss the systems and struggles that has caused poverty. I really appreciate the human face the authors put on those that are struggling in this system.
The other thing I really appreciated about this book was just how readable it was. I generally listen to non-fiction on audio because it tends to not hold my attention. However, this book easily did so. Each chapter breaks down an element of poverty and includes subheadings to break down the text. Each chapter is no more than 10-15 pages long either so it is really digestable. I especially liked the advocacy pointers at the end of each chapter. It helped tie all of the pieces of the chapter together and gave the reader actionable next steps. So often, books like this simply lay out the problem and some possible solutions but this book went a step further and listed actions that actually feel doable. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.