Webb offers a new history of homelessness in America. Those tempted by the popular references to Billy Joel lyrics and the first Rambo film in the book’s opening pages should not be misled. This is a forensic account of how the idea of homelessness emerged and evolved in the USA from the 1890s to the present day. It draws on a mix of social and cultural theory, social commentary from journalists and activists, literature and myth to describe discourses on homelessness; the underpinnings or origins of those discourses; and the impact these shifting constructions of homelessness have had on how the men (and much later, women and families) considered to be homeless are managed by institutions that evolved to respond to this largely urban social problem.