Chapter 1 opens with a description of Dee Knapp, a woman in rural part of Oregon known as Yamhill, hiding out from her abusive husband, Gary. Although Gary beat Dee and frightened their children, Kristof and WuDunn write that at the time of this incident in 1973, the family still had reason to be hopeful that the family’s fortunes would improve. Dee and Gary had both grown up in households without electricity or plumbing and had barely had any schooling. Nonetheless, they’d both found decently paying jobs and were able to buy a house; meanwhile, their children had been able to attend school, riding the same school bus, route number 6, as Nicholas Kristof. Many working-class families at the time shared this sense of upward mobility. As the authors write, however, this trajectory would not endure: “The Knapps, like so many other working-class families, tumbled into unimaginable calamity” (7).

As the American economy has grown in past decades, this has not translated into increased well-being for most Americans. US high school graduation rates are lower than in other wealthy countries, and the country’s violence, poverty, and addiction rates are higher. These problems are not purely a function of individual failings but are caused by social problems.