After the Dustbowl, America needed John Steinbeck to give starvation and deprivation human faces to ponder. But as America’s nationwide hunger faded from living memory, the numbers quietly grew. There are now more than 36 million people in the U.S. euphemistically considered “food insecure.” Living in the world’s richest nation, investigative journalist Sasha Abramsky saw this as unconscionable, and wholly avoidable. In his fourth book, Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It, the author doesn’t expect cold, hard facts to move us to action. Instead, he draws us in through deeply researched, moving literary portraits of families who have slipped between the cracks opened by rising energy costs, decaying health care, and a collapsed housing market. But there is hope: As a Senior Fellow at the New York City–based think tank Demos, it’s Abramsky’s job to offer real strategies. Breadline USA is his call for action.
Thu., July 30, 7 p.m., 2009
