Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America | Paperback | SOCIAL SCIENCE/Poverty & Homelessness Three of the nation’s top scholars—known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America—turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there. This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas.