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Praise for Broke in America — Reviews and our blurbs

Clear, concise, and packed with facts, figures, suggestions for action, Broke in America shows that poverty is not the result of individual laziness or ‘bad choices’ but of economic and social policies that produce inequality by design. The catastrophe of COVID-19, which is reducing countless people to desperation, makes this book especially urgent and necessary reading.

—Katha Pollitt, columnist for The Nation

Kudos to Joanne Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox for a book filled with wisdom, compassion, and solutions. America is a country of paradox: the world’s greatest wealth together with deeply entrenched poverty in its many forms, including homelessness, hunger, unsafe water, under-provisioned schools, and unaffordable energy, transport, health, and other basic needs. The authors open our eyes to these grim realities and to how they can be overcome. This book provides a road map to a better America.

—Jeffrey D. Sachs, university professor at Columbia University

Broke in America is a tour de force. The authors strip poverty to its bare truth. Millions of people in a nation of plenty cannot afford basic needs such as water, housing, food, energy, education, and mental health access. Thanks to Joanne Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, there is no ignoring the immorality or the inhumanity of that—nor of the path forward. Their engrossing, well-researched, and compelling analysis delves into the role that discrimination, sexism, and racism play in trapping people in poverty, and outlines policies to help them ladder out of it. It is a timely call to action for anyone who dares to envision a world that does not resign children, seniors, or neighbors to poverty and suffering. In doing so, this important book should be a North Star for generations to come.

—Rosa DeLauro, US Representative, Connecticut

Joanne Goldblum has been working for decades to bring diapers—a basic staple of childcare—to low-income families. Her new book, written with Colleen Shaddox, a writer and activist working to reduce the number of children the United States incarcerates, explains why America must fix the problem of poverty rather than blaming it on the people it afflicts. Goldblum and Shaddox also offer a road map to a better future.

—Emily Bazelon, national bestselling author of Charged and Sticks and Stones

In the richest country in the history of the world, an eye-opening and humanizing testament to the realization that no one should be poor. At a time of crisis when we are re-envisioning and reconstructing our relationship with government and with each other, this is the book we need.

—Mona Hanna-Attisha, author of What the Eyes Don’t See and pediatrician in Flint, Michigan

At a tumultuous time in US history, many of us are asking ourselves what kind of country we want. I hope that we can work toward the vision laid out in Broke in America: a United States without poverty.

—Jodie Adams Kirshner, research professor at New York University

A down-to-earth overview of the causes and effects of poverty and possible remedies.

—Kirkus Reviews

Enriched with revealing statistics and vivid personal stories, this is a valuable resource in the fight against poverty.

—Publishers Weekly