“A barnburner of a book.” —New York Times Book Review
Disposable
America's Contempt for the Underclass
Description
“A barnburner of a book.” —The New York Times Book Review
In a compelling blend of personal narrative and in-depth reporting, New York magazine senior writer Sarah Jones exposes the harsh reality of America’s racial and income inequality and the devastating impact of the pandemic on our nation’s most vulnerable people.
In the tradition of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Andrea Elliot’s Invisible Child, Disposable is a poignant exploration of America’s underclass, left vulnerable by systemic racism and capitalism. Here, Sarah Jones delves into the lives of the essential workers, seniors, and people with disabilities who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19—not due to their age or profession, but because of the systemic inequality and poverty that left them exposed.
The pandemic served as a stark revelation of the true state of America, a country where the dream of prosperity is a distant mirage for millions. Jones argues that the pandemic didn’t create these dynamics, but rather revealed the existing social mobility issues and wealth gap that have long plagued the nation. Behind the staggering death toll are stories of lives lost, injustices suffered, and institutions that failed to protect their people.
Jones brings these stories to the forefront, transforming the abstract concept of the pandemic into a deeply personal and political phenomenon. She argues that America has abandoned a sacrificial underclass of millions but insists that another future is possible. By addressing the pervasive issues of racial justice and public policy, Jones calls for a future where no one is seen as disposable again.
Reviews
“Five years after the World Health Organization declared covid a pandemic, Jones’s book stands as a reminder of the lessons our country has willfully ignored—an especially stark one with Donald Trump back in the White House and further shredding the social safety net.” —Washington Post
“Jones chronicles the human toll of COVID and how the pandemic served to exacerbate the deep inequalities already baked into American society. The book not only explores the ways in which illness intersects with poverty, race, and disability; it also critiques an American economy that leaves many, including herself, living ‘[a] middle-class life threatened on all sides by catastrophe.’” —Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe
“A deeply reported, enlightening, and empathetic look at the populations that were hit hardest by the pandemic . . . The most powerful parts of her book are the personal stories she gathers from families affected by COVID-19.” —Associated Press
“Incisive . . . In the tradition of Barbara Ehrenreich, [Jones] combines interviews and firsthand observation of poverty with deeply researched history. . . . A full-throated, class-first critique of how the right-wing tendencies of American capitalism made the pandemic so devastating for the working poor . . . What Jones brings to this telling is an unflinching focus on American capital, its unholy marriage to the political class, and the way that union has eroded ordinary people’s faith in authorities.” —The New Republic