Jason DeParle | The New York Review of Books

Sisyphus on the Street

Tracy Kidder’s portrait of a doctor and his homeless patients offers personhood to people many Americans have trained themselves not to see.

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People

by Tracy Kidder

April 4, 2024 issue

A Historic Decrease in Poverty

The successful expansion of the safety net during the pandemic reminds us that high levels of poverty are a political choice, not a fate.

Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty

by Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard, and Heather E. Bullock

2021 Poverty Projections: Assessing the Impact of Benefits and Stimulus Measures

a report by Laura Wheaton, Linda Giannarelli, and Ilham Dehry

Thrifty Food Plan, 2021

a report by the Food and Nutrition Service of the US Department of Agriculture

November 18, 2021 issue

How to Fix Child Poverty

The National Academies estimate that child poverty costs the country $800 billion to $1.1 trillion a year—including lower adult earnings, worse health, and higher crime.

Invisible Americans: The Tragic Cost of Child Poverty

by Jeff Madrick

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty

a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, edited by Greg Duncan and Suzanne Le Menestrel

July 23, 2020 issue

The American Nightmare

‘The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life’ by Lauren Markham

The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life

by Lauren Markham

August 16, 2018 issue

When Government Drew the Color Line

Richard Rothstein’s ‘The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America’

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

by Richard Rothstein

February 22, 2018 issue

The Sea Swallows People

Fire at Sea

a film by Gianfranco Rosi

All at Sea: The Policy Challenges of Rescue, Interception, and Long-Term Response to Maritime Migration

by Kathleen Newland, with Elizabeth Collett, Kate Hooper, and Sarah Flamm

Cast Away: True Stories of Survival from Europe’s Refugee Crisis

by Charlotte McDonald-Gibson

February 23, 2017 issue

Kicked Out in America!

“It is odd that the shortage of low-income housing gets little attention, even among experts on the left. Decent affordable shelter is a primal human need, and its disappearance is one of the most troubling results of growing inequality.”

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Matthew Desmond

March 10, 2016 issue

A Letter on Rape in Prisons

May 10, 2007 issue