Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer chronicled the lives of “disconnected” single mothers – neither working nor on welfare – in their book *$2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America*, reviewed here. Their ethnographic studies in Chicago, Cleveland, Appalachia, and the Mississippi Delta found many reasons for the sharp rise in these destitute families over the past three years, including welfare reform and lack of living-wage jobs.