Book Review: Evicted by Matthew Desmond on Urban Poverty
This paper presents a critical review of Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, a study of housing instability and urban poverty in the United States. The review examines Desmond's central argument that eviction is often a cause of poverty rather than merely a symptom, drawing on his observational and interview-based research with eight households. Key themes discussed include gender disparities in eviction, the disproportionate burden of housing costs on low-income tenants, and the application of family process theory to housing stability. The review also critically evaluates Desmond's treatment of individual decision-making as a contributing factor to poverty.
- Introduction to Evicted by Matthew Desmond: Overview of book selection and personal motivation
- Central Argument and Research Methods: Desmond's thesis, data sources, and methodology
- Gender Disparities in Eviction: Women disproportionately affected by housing eviction
- Housing Costs and Poverty Causation: Unaffordable rent as a driver of poverty
- Critique: Individual Decision-Making and Poverty: Desmond's underemphasis on personal life choices
- References: Cited scholarly sources for the review
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The review moves clearly from summary to analysis, identifying Desmond's central thesis before evaluating its strengths and limitations.
- It connects the book's findings to a relevant theoretical framework — family process theory — grounding the review in academic context.
- The paper ends with a genuine critique, noting that Desmond underemphasizes individual decision-making as a factor in housing loss, demonstrating balanced critical thinking.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates how to integrate a secondary scholarly source (Mayberry et al., 2014) to support and contextualize claims drawn from the primary text. Rather than simply summarizing the book, the reviewer uses outside research to validate the theoretical underpinning of Desmond's argument, which elevates the review from descriptive to analytical.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an introduction to the book and the reviewer's orientation. It then outlines the central argument and methodology, identifies key findings related to gender and housing costs, reflects on professional relevance, and concludes with a targeted critique of the book's analytical gaps. The structure follows a classic review format: introduce, analyze, apply, evaluate.
Introduction to Evicted by Matthew Desmond
The book selected for this discussion is Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. From the outset, it is worth noting that this is one of the most informative books on urban poverty published in recent years. What is most striking about this work is the extent to which the author uncovers hidden aspects of poverty in the United States — specifically in relation to the causes and consequences of housing instability. This book substantially broadened my perspective on poverty and its key triggers.
Central Argument and Research Methods
The central argument of the book is that our common understanding of poverty is largely inaccurate. To support his conclusions, Desmond draws on varied data: the proportion of income spent on housing, individual debt figures, eviction rates during the 2008 economic crisis, and gender disparities in eviction, among other sources. The author appears to draw from family process theory — specifically arguing that the long-term stability of families and the general wellbeing of their members can be reinforced by stable housing. As Mayberry, Shinn, Benton, and Wise (2014) observe, "family processes theoretically mediate the effects of stressors associated with poverty and homelessness on long-term outcomes for parents, children, and families" (p. 96).
The principal methods Desmond relies upon are observation and interviews, engaging a total of eight households and their landlords. His key finding challenges the conventional narrative: he argues that for many families, the descent into poverty during the 2008 economic downturn was triggered by mass evictions following failure to pay rent — whereas most observers assume the reverse, that poverty causes eviction.
Gender Disparities in Eviction
There are several concepts presented in the book that are worth sharing with professional peers. After reading it, one striking revelation is that women are disproportionately affected in efforts to secure housing — they are the gender most affected by evictions. This is a fact that many readers are unlikely to be aware of beforehand. As Desmond pointedly articulates the situation: "If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out" (p. 98). This observation highlights a critical and often overlooked dimension of how poverty is gendered in American cities.
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.