Michael Harrington investigates the systemic causes and persistent invisibility of poverty within the affluent post-war United States. Harrington, a socialist activist and writer, utilizes sociological data and economic observations to argue that poverty in America is not a monolithic experience but a series of distinct, trapped populations. He contends that the economic prosperity of the 1950s and early 1960s masked a structural failure to provide adequate opportunity for the elderly, migrant workers, and racial minorities.

Experts recognize this work as a foundational text that shifted the national discourse on poverty and influenced the development of the War on Poverty. Readers frequently note the accessible yet urgent tone of the prose, which remains a standard reference for understanding mid-century American social inequality.