* Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year *
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize * ** 800-CEO-READ
Business Book of the Year** * A New York Times Notable Book *
A Washington Post Notable Book * An NPR Best Book of 2017 * A Wall
Street Journal Best Book of 2017 * An Economist Best Book of 2017 *
A Business Insider Best Book of 2017 *
"A gripping story of psychological defeat and resilience" (Bob
Woodward, The Washington Post)--an intimate account of the fallout
from the closing of a General Motors assembly plant in Janesville,
Wisconsin, and a larger story of the hollowing of the American middle
class.
This is the story of what happens to an industrial town in the American
heartland when its main factory shuts down--but it's not the familiar
tale. Most observers record the immediate shock of vanished jobs, but
few stay around long enough to notice what happens next when a community
with a can-do spirit tries to pick itself up.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Amy Goldstein spent years immersed in
Janesville, Wisconsin, where the nation's oldest operating General
Motors assembly plant shut down in the midst of the Great Recession.
Now, with intelligence, sympathy, and insight into what connects and
divides people in an era of economic upheaval, Goldstein shows the
consequences of one of America's biggest political issues. Her reporting
takes the reader deep into the lives of autoworkers, educators, bankers,
politicians, and job re-trainers to show why it's so hard in the
twenty-first century to recreate a healthy, prosperous working class.
"Moving and magnificently well-researched...Janesville joins a growing
family of books about the evisceration of the working class in the
United States. What sets it apart is the sophistication of its
storytelling and analysis" (Jennifer Senior, The New York Times).
"Anyone tempted to generalize about the American working class ought to
meet the people in Janesville. The reporting behind this book is
extraordinary and the story--a stark, heartbreaking reminder that
political ideologies have real consequences--is told with rare sympathy
and insight" (Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul
of a New Machine).
