The 1934 journal of seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain reveals her perspective on six stormy months in the eccentric and poverty-stricken life of her family in a ruined Suffolk castle, ending with the revelation that Cassandra is deeply in love.

There has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but in the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Alarmingly, the greatest income gap is not between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, but within the wealthiest 1 percent of our nation -- as the merely wealthy are left behind by the rapidly expanding fortunes of the new global super-rich. Forget the 1 percent; Plutocrats proves that it is the wealthiest...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of the acclaimed, best-selling Half the Sky now issue a plea—deeply personal and told through the lives of real Americans—to address the crisis in working-class America, while focusing on solutions to mend a half century of governmental failure.
With stark poignancy and political dispassion, Tightrope draws us deep into an "other America." The authors tell this story,...

Two years ago, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco set out to take a look at the sacrifice zones, those areas in America that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement. They wanted to show in words and drawings what life looks like in places where the marketplace rules without constraints, where human beings and the natural world are used...

A pastor of a large suburban mega church and a pastor who preaches to gang members, teen mothers and drug addicts, are suddenly thrown together in a tough neighborhood and forced to work together. Will their faith overcome their prejudices?

A revelatory account of poverty in America so deep that we, as a country, don’t think it exists. Jessica Compton’s family of four would have no cash income unless she donated plasma twice a week at her local donation center in Tennessee. Modonna Harris and her teenage daughter Brianna in Chicago often have no food but spoiled milk on weekends. After two decades of brilliant research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed something she hadn’t...

A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying...

An eighteen-year-old hotel worker in India is unhappy with his life and is offered a chance to better himself after meeting a local businessman who owns a villa.

Waging a living: More than 30 million Americans are stuck in jobs that pay less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. Shot over a 3 year period, this documentary chronicles the day-to-day struggles of four low-wage earners to support their families. Jean Reynolds (nursing assistant) and Mary Venittelli (waitress) of New Jersey, Jerry Longoria (security guard) of San Francisco, and Barbara Brooks (student and single mother) of Freeport,...

In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road in Central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting the migrant laborers who have taken to America's farms in search of work -- little personal information is exchanged and neither has any way of knowing that their chance encounter has produced the most iconic image of the Great Depression. Three vibrant characters anchor the narrative of Mary Coin: Mary, the migrant mother...