cake waiting for me. Once, Arleen bought me a tin of cookies and one of those cards that play a silly song. We kept it in my car and would open it when we needed a laugh. Scott still sends my eldest son a birthday card with a ten-dollar bill tucked inside, just like he did when he was homeless.
The harder feat for any fieldworker is not getting in; it’s leaving. And the more difficult ethical dilemma is not how to respond when asked to help but how to respond when you are given so much. I have been blessed by countless acts of generosity from the people I met in Milwaukee. Each one reminds me how gracefully they refuse to be reduced to their hardships. Poverty has not prevailed against their deep humanity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To the people I met in Milwaukee: thank you for everything. You invited me into your homes and work, taught me so much more than I could report here, and were patient, courageous, generous, and honest.
My editor, Amanda Cook, read this book several times and provided thirty single-spaced pages of comments on earlier drafts. Thank you, Amanda, for your brilliant reads, broad vision, flat-out hard work, and most of all, for getting it. I’d also like to thank the rest of the team at Crown, including Molly Stern, for her commitment to serious nonfiction, and Emma Berry, for her careful eye.
Jill Kneerim, my deep-thinking and resolute agent, worked closely with me to develop a proposal, a rigorous and clarifying ordeal. I owe Jill, and everyone at Kneerim and Williams, a huge debt of gratitude.
I began this project while studying sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Mustafa Emirbayer, my dissertation advisor and total sociologist, spent untold hours reviewing my work and pushing me hard. Thank you, Mustafa, for teaching me so much about the craft. Robert Hauser supported this work in many ways, including by funding my final semester at Wisconsin. Ruth López Turley and Felix Elwert coached me in statistics and much more. Timothy Smeeding connected my ideas and findings to public policies. Chad Goldberg, Myra Marx Ferree, Douglas Maynard, and Pamela Oliver offered their time and guidance.
The University of Wisconsin Survey Center helped me design and implement the Milwaukee Area Renters Study and the Milwaukee Eviction Court Study. I thank everyone at the Survey Center, especially Kerryann DiLoreto, Charlie Palit, Jessica Price, and John Stevenson, who went above and beyond the call of duty (and my budget).
While writing this book, I have benefited enormously from my colleagues and students at Harvard. I would like to thank Bruce Western, for reading this manuscript in full and fundamentally shaping how I think about poverty and justice in America; Robert Sampson, for deepening my perspective on cities, crime, and the purpose of social science; William Julius Wilson, for setting the agenda and encouraging me every step of the way; Kathryn Edin, for trusted advice and contagious optimism; Christopher Jencks, for accepting zero easy answers; Devah Pager, for clarity of mind and generosity of spirit; Christopher Winship, for stimulating conversations about theory, methods, and making a difference; and Michèle Lamont, for stretching my understanding of inequality beyond these shores. I have also relied on insights from William Apgar, Mary Jo Bane, Jason Beckfield, Lawrence Bobo, Alexandra Killewald, Jane Mansbridge, Orlando Patterson, James Quane, Mario Small, and Mary Waters. Deborah De Laurell helped in countless ways, including by offering comments on the manuscript. Nancy Branco and Dotty Lukas aptly handled grant management. And a special thanks to a Brisbane taxi driver.
I have worked with a number of incredible research assistants and collaborators on this project. I thank Weihua An, Monica Bell, Thomas Ferriss, Carl Gershenson, Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, Barbara Kiviat, Jonathan Mijs, Kristin Perkins, Tracey Shollenberger, Adam Travis, Nicol Valdez, Nate Wilmers, and Richelle Winkler. Jasmin Sandelson gave smart comments on the full manuscript.
The Harvard Society of Fellows provided a warm and energetic intellectual environment, not to mention time to think and write. At the Society, I am especially indebted to Daniel Aaron, Lawrence David, Walter Gilbert, Joanna Guldi, Noah Feldman, Sarah Johnson, Kate Manne, Elaine Scarry, Amartya Sen, Maura Smyth, Rachel Stern, William Todd, Glen Weyl, Winnie Wong, and Nur Yalman. Kelly Katz and Diana Morse: thank you for your hospitality and for allowing me to finish this book in Green House.
At Harvard Law School, Esme Caramello and the late (and heroic) David Grossman taught me about the promise and pitfalls of poverty law. Anne Harrington, John Durant,