The Many Meanings of Poverty is about poverty in a colonial context-it argues that the cultural meanings of poverty defined social compacts that served to bolster and undermine the sources of colonialism. "Cynthia E. Milton's book ... adds an additional layer of explanation to Egas's interpretation of who comprised the 'truly poor.' In a richly detailed and throughly researched scrutiny of the various faces of poverty in late colonial Quito, Milton examines how society drew distinctions between the deserving and not-so-deserving poor."