Reading Alyosha Goldstein's rigorously researched and tightly argued analysis of the politics of poverty in the United States in the 20th century calls to mind one of John Kenneth Galbraith's most memorable sardonic observations. “It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense,” he wrote in his classic The Affluent Society (1958), “than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.” In Poverty in Common, a challenging and provocative work, Goldstein wrenches his readers from their safe moorings and insists that they cast out into exactly those treacherous waters. Although he ably navigates from one destination to the next, his book is not intended to be a pleasure cruise. Instead, it is a somber confrontation with difficult, deep-seated, and complex issues, and his conclusions are as vexing as they are vital to understand.
Arranged chronologically, Poverty in Common begins with a survey of...