Author Guide · Narrative Journalism
Books Written by
In 1987 Jason DeParle, then a young American on a Luce fellowship in the Philippines, moved in with a family in a Manila shantytown. He stayed in touch with them for more than thirty years, and in 2019 they became the subject of his second book. That patience is the whole method. A New York Times reporter since 1989, he spent the 1990s covering welfare from Washington and was twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist for it; his first book followed three women in Milwaukee through the years the old welfare system ended. This guide covers his two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2004–2019 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Jason DeParle has written two books: American Dream (2004), about three women in Milwaukee and the end of welfare, and A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves (2019), about a Filipino family of migrant workers. Start with American Dream, which won the Helen Bernstein Award; then read the second book to see the same method applied to global migration.
Where to Start with Jason DeParle
If you want his defining book
→ American Dream (2004) — welfare reform seen from three kitchens in Milwaukee.
If you want a book about migration
→ A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves (2019) — three generations of one Filipino family.
If you want to understand US poverty policy
→ American Dream (2004) — the 1996 welfare law from Washington to the street.
2 Jason DeParle Books, in Order
American Dream
Angela Jobe, Jewell Reed and Opal Caples, members of one extended family, moved from Chicago’s South Side to Milwaukee in the early 1990s for cheaper rent and better benefits. DeParle follows them off welfare and into low-wage jobs in nursing homes, motels and a tool-making plant, while separate chapters trace how the 1996 federal welfare law was made in Washington. It was a New York Times Notable Book and won the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Award.
A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves
DeParle met Tita Comodas in 1987 in Leveriza, a shantytown in Manila, and lived with her family on and off for nearly a year. The book follows them for three decades as her husband Emet works abroad and her daughter Rosalie trains as a nurse, works in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi and finally settles in Galveston, Texas. Each chapter sets the family’s story beside the wider economics of migration and remittances. It was a 2020 finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award.
In What Order to Read Jason DeParle
The two books are separate and you can read them in either order. Publication order makes sense, though: American Dream is about poor families inside the United States, and A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves widens the frame to the families who move across the world to reach it.
Both books use the same structure, alternating a family’s story with chapters on policy, so whichever you read first will prepare you for the second.
A reading path
1. American Dream (2004)
2. A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves (2019)
The years · 1982–2024
Quick facts about Jason DeParle
- Known for
- Jason DeParle is known for long, immersive reporting on American poverty, welfare reform and global migration for The New York Times.
- 1982
- Graduates from Duke University
- 1987
- Lives with a family in a Manila shantytown
- 1998
- Second Pulitzer finalist, for welfare reporting
- 2004
- American Dream
- 2024
- Roger Wilkins Fellow, AAPSS
- Grew up
- Jacksonville, Florida
- Education
- Duke University, BA in religious studies, 1982
- Fellowship
- Henry Luce Scholar in Manila, the Philippines, 1986–87
- Worked
- The Times-Picayune, The Washington Monthly, then The New York Times from 1989
- Honours
- George Polk Award (1999); Pulitzer Prize finalist in Beat Reporting (1995, 1998)
- Married
- Nancy-Ann DeParle; they have two sons
The red mark is 2004: American Dream, his book about three women in Milwaukee and the end of welfare.
How Jason DeParle Writes: Years with One Family
DeParle’s books are built on time. He reported on the Milwaukee family in American Dream through the years after they left welfare, and he knew the Comodas family for three decades before A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves appeared. The detail comes from being present: kitchens, job shifts, visa queues, phone calls home.
Both books alternate between the family and the system around it. In American Dream the Milwaukee chapters sit beside chapters set in Washington on how the 1996 welfare law was written; in A Good Provider each chapter pairs a stage of the family’s migration with the economics behind it, such as remittances, which he calls the world’s largest antipoverty programme. Reviewers have praised the reporting for avoiding sentimentality; the critic David Glenn in Dissent also found its treatment of the labour market thin.
He mostly keeps his own views out of the text and lets readers draw political conclusions themselves. For writers who report on poverty in the same close way, see Authors like Matthew Desmond.
Frequently asked questions about Jason DeParle’s books
How many books has Jason DeParle written?
Two: American Dream (2004) and A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves (2019). The rest of his work is journalism for The New York Times.
What are Jason DeParle’s books in order?
American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare (2004), then A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century (2019).
Where should I start with Jason DeParle?
With American Dream, his first book, which follows three women in Milwaukee through welfare reform. Start with A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves instead if migration interests you more.
What is Jason DeParle’s most famous book?
American Dream (2004). It was a New York Times Notable Book and won the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism.
What is American Dream by Jason DeParle about?
Three women from one extended family, Angela Jobe, Jewell Reed and Opal Caples, who moved from Chicago to Milwaukee and had to leave welfare in the 1990s as time limits and work requirements came in. By the end they have ten children between them. Chapters set in Washington show how the 1996 federal welfare law was made.
Who is the family in A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves?
The Comodas family of Manila: Tita, whom DeParle met in 1987, her husband Emet, who worked abroad, and their daughter Rosalie, a nurse who worked in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi before moving to Galveston, Texas.
Where does the title A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves come from?
It is the family’s own saying, voiced in the book by Tita’s niece Peachy: in a family that depends on money sent home, the person who goes abroad to work is the one who provides.
Has Jason DeParle won a Pulitzer Prize?
No, but he was a Pulitzer finalist twice, in Beat Reporting in 1995 and 1998, both times for his New York Times coverage of welfare. He won the George Polk Award in 1999.
Is Jason DeParle related to Nancy-Ann DeParle?
Yes. He is married to Nancy-Ann DeParle, the health-policy official; they have two sons.
Footnotes
- Finalist 1995: Jason DeParle — The Pulitzer Prizes
- Finalist 1998: Jason DeParle — The Pulitzer Prizes
- A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves — New York Public Library, 2020
- After Welfare — Dissent
- Jason DeParle — Penguin Random House
- Jason DeParle — Welfare Reform Academy, University of Maryland
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The real theme of their early lives was profound alienation—not of hopes discarded but of hopes that never took shape.”
— Jason DeParle, American Dream (2004)
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations