ABSTRACT
The focus of this book thus far has been on rural poverty in Britain, with attention given to the main academic approaches to rural poverty over the last couple of decades. Within this chapter I want to switch the spatial focus of the book to the United States and provide a similar comprehensive and critical review of academic studies of poverty in rural areas. In providing this review, attempts will be made to compare the situations in the United States and Britain, not only in terms of the nature of rural poverty, but also in relation to the approaches that academic researchers have taken in their investigations of poverty in rural areas.
