Publication
Flatiron Books (2018), 256 pages
Original publication date
2018
Collections
Genres
Awards
NPR: Books We Love (2018)
Description
Offers a collection of essays on the state of America, including how labor exploitation, racism, gentrification, media bias, and other aspects of a post-employment economy have given rise to an autocrat leader.
User reviews
LibraryThing member rivkat
Collection of Kendzior’s short pieces, often on poverty, the disappearance of jobs, and the associated disappearance of compassion in America, as the wealthy retreat so that they never have to encounter the poor, and everyone participates in a tournament for the few remaining high-paying jobs.
She has some very nice turns of phrase. “It could always be worse, they say. They don’t like to say that it could always be better, because that would require redress.” “The social contract does not apply to contract workers ….” “For the average married mother of small children, it is often cheaper to stay home—even if she would prefer to be in the workforce. It is hard to ‘lean in’ when you are priced out.” On high college costs: “College is a purchased loyalty oath to an imagined employer. College shows you are serious enough about your life to risk ruining it early on. College is a promise the economy does not keep.” “The worst thing about the Iraq war was not that people got away with lying. It was that they did not—and it did not matter.” “If you are being ‘humanized,’ you are already losing. To be ‘humanized’ implies that your humanity is never assumed, but something you have to prove.”
Show More
Several pieces use unpaid internships to highlight these changes—since only wealthy people can afford them, she says, they recast privilege as perserverance, and send the message that work isn’t labor worth paying for but rather charity bestowed by the powerful. Quoting David Graeber, she suggests that one reason right-wing populists hate liberal elites is that the liberals “grabbed all the jobs where you get paid to do something that isn’t just for the money—the pursuit of art, or truth, or charity. All they can do if they want to do something bigger than themselves and still get paid is join the army.” She also writes about the indignities of would-be academics forced into permanent adjuncting, as best; it’s a kind of cult, where if you work outside of academia even to keep body and soul together you’re considered not serious enough. She also writes about the value of open access to scholarship—her own work on authoritarian regimes, because it was publicly available, helped people avoid deportation to a country where they’d have been jailed or killed.She has some very nice turns of phrase. “It could always be worse, they say. They don’t like to say that it could always be better, because that would require redress.” “The social contract does not apply to contract workers ….” “For the average married mother of small children, it is often cheaper to stay home—even if she would prefer to be in the workforce. It is hard to ‘lean in’ when you are priced out.” On high college costs: “College is a purchased loyalty oath to an imagined employer. College shows you are serious enough about your life to risk ruining it early on. College is a promise the economy does not keep.” “The worst thing about the Iraq war was not that people got away with lying. It was that they did not—and it did not matter.” “If you are being ‘humanized,’ you are already losing. To be ‘humanized’ implies that your humanity is never assumed, but something you have to prove.”
Show Less
LibraryThing member teckelvik
I read this collection of essays over a period of several weeks, usually one article each morning with my wake-up cup of tea. This was partly because I don't like to read a whole series of essays by one person in a go; topics shift, the rhythm of short pieces is choppy, the pieces run together.
Kendzior is a sharp reporter, and her academic expertise in authoritarianism and the social and cultural conditions that both create it and are created by it informs much of what she sees. She has the ability to point out that what we have been conditioned to accept as normal is anything but. She unsparingly destroys the American myth of the meritocracy, and shows how our system is set up to perpetuate a wealthy elite, while the rest of us fall further and further behind.
Infuriating, intense, inspiring. Recommended.
Show More
Partly it was because each one gave me something to think about all day. And partly it was because reading essays written in 2012-14 and realizing that nothing was new or improved was deeply depressing.Kendzior is a sharp reporter, and her academic expertise in authoritarianism and the social and cultural conditions that both create it and are created by it informs much of what she sees. She has the ability to point out that what we have been conditioned to accept as normal is anything but. She unsparingly destroys the American myth of the meritocracy, and shows how our system is set up to perpetuate a wealthy elite, while the rest of us fall further and further behind.
Infuriating, intense, inspiring. Recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ritaer
Meaty essays on the decline of the working class, the decay of academia and other important but depressing topics. Couldn't read all of it, just too much of a downer.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
1250189993 / 9781250189998
Physical description
256 p.; 5.47 inches
Pages
256