Paul Tough, author of Whatever It Takes

"Paul Tough's clear-eyed portrait of Geoffrey Canada offers the most cogent, provocative, and original thinking on urban poverty to come along in many, many years. Whatever It Takes pushed me to question what I thought I knew. Powerful and hopeful, disturbing and daring, it's one important book. Essential, even." — Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here.

"Paul Tough shows, from the inside, how the nation's most important work gets done." — Adrian Nicole Leblanc, author of Random Family

"Paul Tough, a New York Times Magazine editor, spent five years reporting on the nonprofit community-based organization, following Geoffrey Canada and many families through the first several years of the school. Whatever It Takes reveals Canada's relentless drive to see his students succeed. This unflinching book will motivate us all to take action and make our schools places of possibility and hope." — Essence, September 2008

Paul Tough is the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. He has written extensively about education, poverty and politics, including cover stories in the New York Times Magazine on the Harlem Children’s Zone, the post-Katrina school system in New Orleans, and No Child Left Behind and charter schools. He has worked as an editor at the New York Times Magazine and Harper’s Magazine and was the founding editor of Open Letters, an online magazine. He has also worked as a reporter and producer for the public-radio program “This American Life," where he reported, most recently, on the parents enrolled in the Harlem Children Zone's Baby College. His writing has appeared in Slate, GQ, Esquire, and the New Yorker. He lives with his wife and son in New York City and Montauk, New York.

author photo

Paul Tough

Author photo by Mary McIlvaine

Whatever It Takes Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America

Whatever It Takes
Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America