Janesville

An American Story

De: Amy Goldstein

Narrado por: Joy Osmanski

Winner of the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award!

A Washington Post reporter's intimate account of the fallout from the closing of a General Motors assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin - Paul Ryan's hometown - 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 factory stills - 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 winner Amy Goldstein has spent years immersed in Janesville, Wisconsin, where the nation's oldest operating General Motors plant shut down in the midst of the Great Recession, two days before Christmas of 2008. Now, with intelligence, sympathy, and insight into what connects and divides people in an era of economic upheaval, she makes one of America's biggest political issues human. Her reporting takes the listener deep into the lives of autoworkers, educators, bankers, politicians, and job retrainers to show why it's so hard in the 21st century to re-create a healthy, prosperous working class.

For this is not just a Janesville story or a Midwestern story. It's an American story.

©2017 Amy Goldstein (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Microcosm of American economy now

This is a great story of the changes in American economy, especially in the Great Lakes states.

Strikes the right balance of optimism and reality.

A different perspective

I was draw to this book by its FT Award. Living in New England and the world described in this book has brought me a very different perspective. Great book.

outstanding!

A heartwrenching, yet hopeful, story of an end of an era.

A must read for today's times.

Great story!

Really enjoyed listening to this story! Explained so much about what was going on in the town. Creative nonfiction at its best. Love the performance and the writing.

Lucid, sobering, and relatable economic analysis

We learned about this book in the Pitchfork Economics podcast. We read it right after Thomas Frank's Listen Liberal. This book dovetails nicely with it. Both of these are very accessible to a general audience.

The setting is the heart of former Speaker Paul Ryan's congressional district (Wisconsin's 1st).This books lays bare the many failures our current economic system. It also exposes the shocking lack of effective support available to our former manufacturing communities. Alas, neither party has made a difference. The stories were intimate and relatable.

Great. Must Read on Globalization

Great. A must read/listen for anyone who wants to know more about how working people are getting through the challenges caused by globalization. There’s no question that there needs to be a better social security net because the people in this story are doing their best to cope and yet the human costs are higher than they should be: parents separated from children because the local job market isn’t good, children paying bills from fast food jobs because the jobs their parents work at full time don’t pay enough, etc. I thought the author’s treatment of the subject was fair. The outcomes she describes help one draw one’s own conclusions about what needs to be done to create more sustainable communities.

The definitive story of losing blue collar jobs

Excellent reporting about the effect of plant closings on a proud blue collar community. I waited for news of a turnaround, but perhaps it will take much longer than the nine years covered in this book. Heartbreaking stories of personal loss when families must deal with job instability, the need for assistance, and disappearing opportunities.

The gravy train

As a person who served the automotive industry it was a pretty sad spectacle to watch. It was as if the entire industry was focused on their retirement and benefits. No one ever believed that the gravy train would ever run out of gravy, until it did. The author brought the story full circle answering the questions that I had. This book is an absolute winner.

This is really great book to listen to

this book describes history of American city after financial crisis at 2008, how people can unite around common problem and help each other

This book will shake your foundations!

The book is a powerful commentary on the impact of job dislocation, the difficulties of addressing it and the incredible resiliency of some people.