The Web of Poverty: Psychosocial Perspectives

Poverty is a vicious cycle. From a lack of adequate education, to low paying jobs, to high levels of crime, to low quality medical care, to the imperfections of welfare, to misconceptions of different racial groups and what have you ,as well as all the reprocussions of all of the above. There are facts, figures, and statistics to better portray the subject at hand. It is constantly updated with every edition in order to keep the material as accurate as possible. "The Web of Poverty" by Anne-Marie Ambert compares poverty mainly between the USA and Canada. Other countries are also mentioned. All in all it explains and portrays poverty in such a way that will help you better understand it and the issues surrounding it. It's a great read!

The Web of Poverty, by Anne-Marie Ambert was a very interesting book that gave a very complete view of poverty. In showing how poverty is both a cause and an effect of many different situations, the severity of this social issue became very apparent. The book reads both like a novel and a textbook. Ambert uses many statistics and raw numbers. These serve to communicate the large amounts of poverty actually present and to give comparisons among different races and cultures. Ambert also helps the reader understand the where and what of poverty but also the why. She does a very good job of demonstrating that people living in poverty are often not responsible for their situation, at least no more so than the overall social structure they are a part of. "Web" reminds us the true cause lies in a system that creates cycles of poverty by putting so much influence on personal wealth and the bottom line. At the same time few escapes are offered for those unfortunate enough to fall below the poverty line. In addition, Ambert also emphasizes the cyclical nature of poverty. She shows how causes of poverty can lead to effects, which in turn cause more poverty. Effectively, when parents enter poverty their children are often doomed to the same state. Overall, this book was very interesting and difficult to read. The information presented was very valuable and eye opening. It was hard to acknowledge the dreary state that so many people live in every day. Since the book did not give very many solutions to this social plague, it, at times, painted poverty as a bottomless black pit. However, the negative feelings caused by this book are necessary to spur readers to action, or at least away from apathy, towards poverty. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a true view of the extent, causes, and consequences of poverty