This book feels like the child of Edin and Shaefer's previous work, $2 A Day, and her Princeton colleague Matt Desmond's "Evicted," and is probably not quite as successful as either of those. $2 A Day, though it was criticized for its methodology, got into the bloodstream of the political discourse in the same way Edin's Promises I Can Keep did. Desmond is a lyrical writer whose on-the-ground ethnography earned him a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize. The Injustice of Place, while solid, doesn't quite soar to those heights. But for those who need a reminder of how opportunity in America depends heavily - some would say exclusively - on what Zip code you're born in, The Injustice of Place drives that message home.

I started but did not finish this book. It was a bit dense and dry for me. Interesting topic but couldn't grab me.

Eye opening. I had no idea that discrimination is as pervasive as it is. Our system needs desperate repair!

I had very mixed feelings about this book. It was extensively and impressively researched. It brought an impressive number of important issues to light. However, it was heavily slanted against the capitalist system. In the introduction, the authors state clearly that there's a lot to be said for the entrepreneurial spirit and capitalism, but this is not a book about that.

As someone whose parents were born in Appalachia and grew up as some of the poorest people in the United States, I wanted to like this book. But I didn't. My parents had the wherewithal to get out of that situation. Yes, they had help. There is help available, from all kinds of sources. My problem with the book is that dire poverty is not the complete deadened and hopeless situation portrayed by the authors. As someone who is very well educated and very well off - one generation from the poverty described in this book - I know this for a fact. Yes, poverty exists in this country. But the possibility of getting out of it exists as well.

THE INJUSTICE OF PLACE by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, and Timothy Nelson is a work of non-fiction which is all about "Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America." Professors at Princeton and the University of Michigan respectively, Edin and Shaefer collaborated previously on $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. Here, they are joined by Nelson (also at Princeton) in a thorough review of America's "internal colonies," including traditions of violence, political corruption, revolt and retribution, and the potential for healing. They have produced a fascinating study which focuses on place-based disadvantage. In addition to income, they look at low birth weights, life expectancy, and inter-generational mobility, creating an Index of Deep Disadvantage, intentionally named to reflect injustice and unfair circumstances. They found that many of the most disadvantaged communities were rural, predominantly Native American, and/or located in Appalachia, South Texas, or the Southeast and these researchers saw a pattern: "a history of intensive resource extraction and profound human exploitation not seen to the same degree elsewhere in the United States." The effort by their team is impressive, including on the ground visits to "a total of 155 locations, more than 75 percent of the 200 [places of deepest disadvantage]" and extensive appendices with roughly one-fourth of the book devoted to notes. It is gratifying to see the positive comments about future policy implications and social science scholarship from economist Raj Chetty and award-wining author Matthew Desmond (Evicted and Poverty, by America). THE INJUSTICE OF PLACE also received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

When people usually write about poverty, people are usually the focus. The Injustice of Place focuses on the poorest places and what they all have in common. The authors tackle the legacy of segregation (and the use of private schools to get around Brown vs Board of Education), lack of social infrastructure, violence, political corruption, as well as what we can do to fix it. The injustice of Place is a great read for anyone interested in the topic or a fan of Matthew Desmond's Poverty, By America.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I can attest to much of what the authors note in this newest work as the injustices are deep and poverty is deeper.
As a survivor of this state of despair what we have is the bottom feeders struggling against the powerful elites. The lack of advancement, the low pay, the inability to help every citizen excel without some connections is ad nauseum.
In small towns like my own it's God awful to move forward without having wealth, power, and prestige. As noted, It's not what you know but who you know and I'd add who you donate too.
The more you donate the better your chances. The more you show up and give the more they show up and help.
What we must not become is complacent in allowing this to become the new norm. By allowing robots to take away workers jobs, by allowing big corporations to pay peanuts and expect work to death mentality, by allowing those like myself with Masters education to be placed at the bottom gives no incentive to work hard and earn your keep.
After raising kids and a family upon divorcing in 2013 I found myself in dire straits. No income, alimony, child support, and 15k in arrearages for the support owed from my ex spouse in which he refused to pay. Our master judge awarded me 740 dollars to raise a family of four in an area in which a two bedroom goes for 1,200. I had a disabled (medically) son from birth with vater syndrome. My first payment after a year w/o income living on credit was $100. We eventually fought with 4 attorneys to achieve an increase of $1200 monthly but spent twice as much to obtain. I sought work with a dual Masters and over 20 yrs volunteer experience since 2010. It wasn't until Feb. 2023 that I finally acquired a $14 hr job (remote) with benefits from day one.
I'm blessed to have this job but I must note it's working as a resource navigator with 211 similar to 911 and helpline. I help others acquire what I myself couldn't find on my own. My job is to find the resources within the human service field. I love my job but the pay is quite low for masters and while the benefits are great and make up for the low wages along with the annual time earned to use free willy it's sad to see how the system is so broken.
We have individuals whom if they call after hours 9-4pm they can't be helped. We have no after hour homeless shelters especially on holidays.
While I tried to illicit change I was met with a write-up for wanting to help others. It's best to stay quiet and not lose the job you fought so hard to acquire.
What I've long learned is that the world and society today has drastically changed. There's people who will sit on cell phones recording before lending a hand to their fellow citizens.
There's something to say about a system that continues to penalize the impoverished. It costs more to be poor. Try to get credit and you'll find out. Living in extreme poverty is met with challenges.
Speaking upon experience to get a gift card because of having zero credit is maddening. To pay an activation fee $5 or more is nuts. To then not be able to use cash at facilities and continue to have to purchase cards is insanity. Since when is the American Dollar not acceptable?
To have to spend thousands in student loans to be able to receive a less paying salaried position is not only not fair it diminshes the point of higher education.
Why can't we help those with student loan debt forgiveness?
Why must we tell the disabled and poor that they can't get disability not because they're not disabled but because they own two vehicles (assets) that penalize the poor even if those assets are for their own kids to attend college to leave poverty behind.
This world is so ass backwards that the very definition of common sense is I'm afraid all but lost on upon us.
I had the golden opportunity once to meet President Joe Biden. I mentioned to him this above comment, Bring back common sense!
Everything I'm seeing put into place by politicians is nothing more than an election grabber for the next cycle. They'll sell the community on the idea they'll bring in new jobs on the back of tax free land. They'll lay off more than they'll eventually hire. In the end, the factories go belly up while those dependent upon those jobs are left scrambling for new opportunity.
As a 50 yo woman I grew up with the American Dream in which you work hard to obtain what you need. I did just that! I worked for Lord and Taylor Distribution warehouse in Wilkes Barre. I was top producer in two departments and made a whopping $7.25 hr with a ten cent raise. I was then struck down literally when a 50 lb trolley hit me on the head knocking me to the ground. OSHA did nothing. We couldn't sue as they had top of the line attorneys. So, the little guy aka myself went home with an indented skull and left the company.
After the past 13 yrs seeking work and the past 29 raising my family I learned that it's nearly impossible to get employed with a gap even if you fill the gap with volunteering experience as a Points of Light recipient from our 41st President George H.W. Bush
While my community celebrated the white men who assisted over the years and provided them the key to the city and other recognition those of us on the front line received lil more than a "Thank you" for putting in more than 20 yrs for their tw0-six years. In fact the mayors of two of my local towns acted as if they didn't know I volunteered in serving yet, I was front and center at each community event.
What I can tell you is I never have served my community for applause but for a cause. It doesn't matter if they chase me out or help assist me because either way I'm here to stay.
As noted by others there's a treasure trove we could all write about in injustices in society today.
This is just the tip of this iceberg. As a white woman from a mid class background I was told to suck it up buttercup, to get a job, to stop sponging off the family. I was told I didn't want to work, I wanted hand outs, and that these welfare moms are lazy and or entitled.
I'd have given my right arm and then some for employment but we have to look into providing a living wage not a work to death wage.
I have medical issues that I needed to take two weeks off from work just to attend too. It's not right. It's sad. It's disgusting that we as Americans are treated so inhumanely.
When I was abused by my spouse who was arrested for violating his PFA I was told I deserved the abuse.
When I couldn't get employed I was told I wasn't sending out enough applications, I wasn't trying hard enough, I didn't do enough.
As a single mom left bankrupt, homeless, LT unemployed, without income/assets/savings/credit I can tell you this: I'll never give up and neither should our society at large.
God bless

This is what I look for when I need some nonficiton. This is real and painful. I loved the history of each region, especially the history of the eugenics movement. People forget American's did it first. It was the "science" of the day in the 1920s. Women's social clubs gathered to talk about it. It was "classy" to believe these things.
We forget these things. Who we are now started centuries ago.
I HIGHLY recommend this one.

The Injustice of Place is an incredibly well-researched book, drawn out over five years of studies. The researchers study deeply disadvantaged places in the United States, and the results are stunning. I have taken classes and learned about inequities of space, but this book took it to a whole other level and really goes into how politics, federal and local government, corporate America, racism, and historical policies have exploited places in America and now they are just a shell of a place, where people sometimes subside on just $2 a day to survive. And then comes the opioid crisis!
Edin, Shaefer, et al. tell the story of how these places came to be, and who has always been the winner in them-- slaveowners, property owners and corporations. Spinach and onions farmers if you owned the land in Texas; coal mine owners in Appalachia; cotton/plantation/slave owners in Antebellum South. They describe these and other areas as "America's Internal Colonies" what the researchers uncover and describe left me speechless. They speak with people living in the places they studied, and learn about their lives.
The Injustice of Place is well-written, well-researched and is an a very interesting read. I think my review makes it sound almost academic, but it is a good read for those interested in the history of America and how often we have built it on the backs of the disadvantaged, and also on the backs of a place and not looked back. Readers interested in public policy and its effects would enjoy as well. One place in America is not the same as another, and sadly some of those places have more obstacles for prosperity than others, and getting out of the place can be just as difficult as surviving in it.
I received The Injustice of Place as an ARC for my honest opinion. This illuminating book is a really good read, and I highly recommend!

There was so much valuable information that the author provided. I think many people need to read this, but it was definitely a scholarly read. I need to be able to enjoy non-fiction reads just as much as my fiction reads and there were times when I was not engaged in the reading. I wouldn't discourage anyone who may be interested in reading. I would still highly recommend it to my friends and followers.

With a deep dive into why certain areas of the country are still poor, impoverished, prone to gun violence, addiction, etc, the researchers spell out why certain places have struggled for over a century.

I loved that the authors used a TON of research, in person interviews, and boots on the ground approach to find out why certain counties are consistently poor, while others flourish.

I learned so much about crooked politicians, voting against your own best interests, and what happens when governments abandon their citizens.

I thought that the researchers barely scraped the surface of this important work. I can't wait to read more of this topic from them.