Since the Clinton years, the American state has treated poverty as a crime, turning the receipt of state aid into a basis for the most invasive intrusions into your personal life, for a never-ending round of barked accusations and cruel threats to your freedom, your family, and your future. Taibbi's core hypothesis is that, just like the widening wealth-gap, America has a terrible problem with a widening justice gap. 'We've put society on bureaucratic autopilot… a steel trap for losers and a greased pipeline to money, power and impunity for the winners.' ( All illustrations courtesy of Molly Crabapple) Taibbi's spectacular financial reporting for Rolling Stone set him out as the best running commentator on the financial crisis and its crimes, and The Divide - beautifully illustrated by Molly Crabapple - shows that at full length, he's even better. The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap is a scorching, brilliant, incandescent indictment of the widening gap in how American justice treats the rich and the poor.

The Divide by Matt Taibbi