“Evicted” in Milwaukee
Go inside the world of poverty and evictions.
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
The next installment of the Urban Milwaukee Book Club will hit close to home. We will be reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. The soon-to-be released book follows eight Milwaukee families as they deal with the struggles of poverty.
The book has been described as both “brilliant” and “heartbreaking” and is sure to inspire much debate. Desmond embedded himself in the communities he chronicles from 2008 to 2009, living in various Milwaukee apartments, including the notorious College Mobile Home Park.
The book is scheduled for a March 1st release, and you’ll want to get your copy as soon as its released (Amazon is accepting pre-orders). We will convene for discussion and a social hour on April 4th in the backroom of My Office, 763 N. Milwaukee St, at 6 p.m. All are welcome to attend, the discussions are informal and open-ended. If you don’t finish the book, don’t worry. Come to listen, learn and engage.
For a primer on the book and topic, read Urban Milwaukee editor Bruce Murphy‘s early February column “The Plague of Urban Evictions.” Once you finish, make sure to scroll down to check out the extensive debate in the article’s comments section.
The book is available from Amazon, the Milwaukee Public Library, and bookstores everywhere.
To stay in the loop about future book club news, sign up for our Book Club mailing list. To help us better plan, please RSVP on Facebook, although it’s not required.
About The Author
“Matthew Desmond is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and codirector of the Justice and Poverty Project. A former member of the Harvard Society of Fellows, he is the author of the award-winning book On the Fireline, co-author of two books on race, and editor of a collection of studies on severe deprivation in America. His work has been supported by the Ford, Russell Sage, and National Science Foundations, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. In 2015, Desmond was awarded a MacArthur Genius grant.”
Previous Books
- February 2016 – Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
- January 2016 – Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam
- December 2015 – Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun by Gabe Klein
Upcoming Dates
- April 4th, 2016 – Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
- May 16th, 2016
- June 27th, 2016
- August 8th, 2016
- September 19th, 2016
- November 7th, 2016
Instead of Amazon, perhaps a local store such as Boswell book company.
Thank you Kate, as I was going to make the same point.
In fact, Matthew Desmond is appearing at Boswell on the on-sale date March 1! Why not go hear the author speak and pick up the book then? It is certain to add a dimension to the book club discussion!
http://www.boswellbooks.com/upcoming-events
(Scroll down to March 1st for event details.)
What Kate said.
As we’re an advertising-supported, free publication, we link to Amazon because we get a referral fee if people buy the book. Boswell does not have such a system.
That said, I continue to patronize Boswell and buy a number of books there every year.
If someone would like to step forward to sponsor our book club, we would be more than happy to direct all purchases solely to local book stores.
Matthew Desmond also got his master’s degree in 2004 and his Ph.D in 2010 from UW-Madison