Poverty and Power - 4th Edition by Edward Royce (Paperback)

About the Book

Clear, accessible, and compelling - a critical guide to the unequal distribution of economic, political, and cultural power and its effects on the persistence of poverty and economic hardship

Book Synopsis

Poverty is a serious problem in the United States, more so than commonly imagined, and more so than in other industrialized nations. Most Americans adhere to an individualistic perspective: they believe poverty is largely the result of people being deficient in intelligence, determination, education, and other personal traits. Poverty and Power, Fourth Edition challenges this viewpoint, arguing that poverty arises from the workings of four key structural systems--the economic, the political, the cultural, and the social--and ten obstacles to economic justice, including unaffordable housing, inaccessible health care, and racial and gender discrimination. The author argues that a renewed war on poverty can be successful, but only through a popular movement to bring about significant change in the workings of American economic, political, and cultural institutions.
New to this Edition
Enhanced conversation on why the cultural theory of poverty has such a strong appeal to the American public develops students' critical thinking skills (Chapter 3) New segment on the influence of job seekers' physical appearance on hiring decisions showing that success is not simply a matter of education, skills, and training (Chapter 4)New data on the "job availability problem" explains in detail why the monthly headline unemployment number is misleading, and new content on the 2021 upsurge of quits on the part of American workers portrays efforts on the part of ordinary people to improve their lives (Chapter 5)New content on how corporations have become increasingly assertive political players explores the dramatic increase in corporate lobbying efforts, the rise of billionaire political activists, and the creation of a powerful conservative political infrastructure in the United States (Chapter 6)Greater attention to racially segregated and resource-deprived Black communities covers the extraordinary hardships experienced by the residents of these areas, while a new section on the geographical isolation of the affluent discusses how isolation affects wealthy people's beliefs and perceptions about poverty and what policies they deem acceptable (Chapter 8)

Review Quotes

"I use Royce's book Poverty and Power when teaching a sociology course focused on social class. In a clear and up-to-date manner, Royce challenges common myths about social class in the U.S., and presents data and corresponding arguments that reveal structural causes of poverty, rooted in economic, political, social, and cultural systems." --Laurel R. Davis-Delano, Professor of Sociology, Springfield College

"The single most comprehensive structural exploration of inequality and poverty." --Rick Eckstein, Villanova University

"Clear, accessible, and powerfully argued, Poverty and Power offers readers a deeply informed exploration of how we tend to explain poverty in the United States and how those dominant explanations differ from what we know about the reality of being poor in America. There may be no better single-volume introduction to the issue than this compelling and comprehensive book." --Stephen Pimpare, Casey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire

"Poverty and Power is an essential text for students interested in understanding the intersection of structural poverty and the unequal distribution of power in the U.S., and how the former is perpetuated by the latter." --Arturo Baiocchi, California State University, Sacramento

"Edward Royce's Poverty and Power provides a comprehensive look at the reasons why poverty persists in the United States and why it is so often taken for granted by many Americans. Royce's compelling argument identifies the cause of poverty as rooted in inequalities in power and politics and shows the inadequacies of individualistic, cultural, and human capital theories of poverty." --Ellen Reese, University of California, Riverside

"Poverty and Poweris the best one-stop-shop I have found for helping students to understand how inadequate our understandings of poverty are in the U.S. and how central power is to fostering--and, ultimately, to addressing--poverty." --Michael Barram, Saint Mary's College of California

"At a time when America is facing a crisis of inequality and rising poverty, Edward Royce's Poverty and Power is a critical guide to understanding the true causes of economic hardship in our country and to avoiding falling for the false and misleading ideas about poverty that are so popular in the mass media. Poverty is a problem created by political power--Royce shows how it's done, and how it can be undone." --Gordon Lafer, Professor, University of Oregon

"Poverty and Power is an excellent textbook that not only provides rigorous analysis of the ongoing socio-economic issues in the United States, but challenges students to think more critically at how structural and institutional norms reinforce poverty." --Randy Goldson, Temple University

"This updated edition of Poverty and Power remains the single most comprehensive exploration of structural inequality I have ever read. The book brilliantly excoriates our prevailing belief that poverty and inequality result from individuals' poor decisions or bad personal attributes. For my colleagues, Poverty and Power has become the 'go-to book' for undergraduate and graduate classes that examine the economic, cultural, political, and social layers of systemic inequality." --Rick Eckstein, Villanova University

"A brilliantly written book about the causes and consequences of American poverty that serves as a wakeup call to a nation with the ideals of justice, but the realities of gross inequity born out of injustice." --Rebecca Havens, Point Loma Nazarene University

About the Author