Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequality explores and critiques the widespread perception in the United States that one's success or failure in life is largely the result of personal choices and individual characteristics. As the authors show, the distinctively individualist ideology of American politics and culture shapes attitudes toward poverty and economic inequality in profound ways, fostering social policies that de-emphasize structural remedies. Drawing on a variety of unique methodologies, the book synthesizes data from large-scale surveys of the American population, and it features both conversations with academic experts and interviews with American citizens intimately familiar with the consequences of economic disadvantage. This mixture of approaches gives readers a fuller understanding of "skeptical altruism," a concept the authors use to describe the American public's hesitancy to adopt a more robust and structurally-oriented approach to solving the persistent problem of economic disadvantage.

In Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequality, the authors argue that the stronger individualism and weaker structuralism found in the U.S. compared to much of Europe ensures that American politicians do not face the same degree of pressure that European politicians do to develop and/or maintain robust and structurally-oriented social policies. Combined with racism and features of the American political system, this works to limit the generosity and effectiveness of anti-poverty and inequality-reduction efforts in the U.S. This helps explain why the U.S. compares so poorly to other wealthy countries on measures of overall poverty, childhood poverty, economic inequality, and social mobility.