March nonfiction: Around the world with six recently published international nonfiction titles

Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond

The United States is the richest country on earth, yet has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. One in seven Americans lives below the poverty line, a line which hasn't shifted over the last 50 years, despite the efforts of successive governments. Why is there so much scarcity in this land of dollars?

In Poverty, by America, sociologist Matthew Desmond examines American poverty today and the stories we tell ourselves about it. Spanning social isolation, mass incarceration, the housing crisis, domestic violence, crack and opioid epidemics, welfare cuts and more, Desmond argues that poverty does not result from a lack of resources or good policy ideas. It is time better-paid citizens put themselves back in the narrative, recognizing that the depth and expanse of poverty in any nation reflects our failure to look out for one another. Poverty must ultimately be met by the community: all this suffering and want is our doing, and we can undo it.

The Tastemaker: My Life with the Legends and Geniuses of Rock Music, Tony King

Leaving school and starting his career at Decca Records in 1958 at the age of 16, Tony King would soon find himself becoming close friends with Elton John, rekindling John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s relationship, mediating a quarrelsome Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and spending time with Freddie Mercury in his final days – a far cry from his childhood days in Eastbourne.

Living in an era of seismic social, technological and cultural transformation, King experienced these defining moments as a stalwart in London and New York’s gay scenes. Alongside his heady life in showbusiness, he was witness to the AIDS crisis and its devastating consequences: the death of family, the death of friends and the stultifying weight of responsibility in being called upon to hold things together.

At once profound and suffused with Tony King’s disarming warmth and unparalleled charisma, The Tastemaker paints an intimate portrait of a music legend and captures the unpredictable world he stamped his indelible mark on.

Dragged Up Proppa: Growing up in Britain’s Forgotten North, Pip Fallow

Pip Fallow was born in the coal miner’s cottage where his family of eight lived, in a village near Durham. Pip was destined to join his father down the pit, but the closure of his village’s mine in the 1980s saw him at the back of the dole queue like the rest. This is Pip’s story of being “dragged up proppa”, living by his wits, working and travelling the world before finally settling a few miles from where he grew up.

This is the memoir of a man who left school illiterate but has now written a book. The story of a lost generation who were prepared for a life that had disappeared by the time they were ready for it, of communities with once strong social ties that have now disintegrated, and a way of living that simply no longer exists in Britain today.

Who’s Afraid of Gender?, Judith Butler

Judith Butler, the ground-breaking philosopher whose work has redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on gender that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed “anti-gender ideology movements” dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous threat to families, local cultures, civilisation – and even “man” himself. Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to abolish reproductive justice, undermine protections against violence, and strip trans and queer people of their rights.

But what, exactly, is so disturbing about gender? In this vital, courageous book, Butler carefully examines how “gender” has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations and transexclusionary feminists, and the concrete ways in which this phantasm works. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of critical race theory and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.

LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority, Marie Arana

At present, Latinos comprise 20 per cent of the US population, a number that is growing. By 2050, census reports project that one in every three Americans will claim Latino heritage. But Latinos are not a monolith. They do not represent a single group. The largest numbers are Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and Cubans. Each has a different cultural and political background. Puerto Ricans, for example, are US citizens, whereas some Mexican Americans never immigrated because the US-Mexico border shifted after the US invasion of 1848, incorporating what is now the entire southwest of the United States.

As LatinoLand shows, Latinos were some of the earliest immigrants to what is now the US – some of them arriving in the 1500s. They are racially diverse – a random fusion of White, Black, Indigenous, and Asian. Once overwhelmingly Catholic, they are becoming increasingly Protestant and Evangelical. They range from domestic workers and day labourers to successful artists, corporate CEOs, and US senators. Formerly solidly Democratic, they now vote Republican in growing numbers. They are as varied culturally as any immigrants from Europe or Asia.

Marie Arana draws on her own experience as the daughter of an American mother and Peruvian father who came to the US at age nine, straddling two worlds, as many Latinos do. LatinoLand shows us why we must understand the fastest-growing minority in America.

Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, Brad Gooch

In the 1980s, the subways of New York City were covered with art. In the stations, black matte sheets were pasted over outdated ads, and unsigned chalk drawings often popped up on these blank spaces. These temporary chalk drawings numbered in the thousands and became synonymous with a city as diverse as it was at war with itself, beset with poverty and crime but alive with art and creative energy. And every single one of these drawings was done by Keith Haring.

Keith Haring was one of the most emblematic artists of the 1980s, a figure described by his contemporaries as “a prophet in his life, his person, and his work.” Part of an iconic cultural crowd that included Andy Warhol, Madonna, and Basquiat, Haring broke down the barriers between high art and popular culture, creating work that was accessible to all and using it as a means to provoke and inspire radical social change. Haring died of AIDS in 1990. To this day, his influence on our culture remains incontrovertible, and his glamorous, tragically short life has a unique aura of mystery and power.

Brad Gooch, noted biographer of Flannery O’Connor and Frank O’Hara, was granted access to Haring’s extensive archive. He has written a biography that will become the authoritative work of the artist. Based on interviews with those who knew Haring best and drawing from the rich archival history, Brad Gooch sets out to capture the magic of Keith Haring: a visionary and timeless icon.