The Other America: Poverty in the United States

The Other America: Poverty in the United States, written by Michael Harrington and published in 1962, exposes the hidden persistence of deep poverty amid America’s postwar affluence, challenging the myth that mass poverty had been eradicated by the New Deal. Harrington argues that 40 to 50 million Americans—rural poor, urban Black communities, the elderly, mentally ill, and others—formed an invisible underclass, segregated by economic, racial, and social barriers into a distinct culture of poverty marked by substandard housing, low aspirations, mental distress, and a vicious cycle of disadvantage. The book influenced President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and Great Society programs by highlighting how the poor were not merely neglected but trapped in systemic exclusion from mainstream prosperity.