Janesville

An American Story

By: Amy Goldstein

Narrated by: Joy Osmanski

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

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 helps one draw one’s own conclusions about what needs to be done to create more sustainable communities.

Narrators pronunciation

It would help if the narrator learned how we pronounce certain city and people names in Wisconsin. It was annoying to hear things pronounced incorrectly, especially Governor Bob La Follette.

Yes, to all of this book

I realize I’m behind here, reading this in early 2022, but glad I finally did. As a newish part of the Janesville community, I’ve seen a lot and learned a lot in my 4 years as a pediatrician here. The vacant GM lot still sits, and the families directly or indirectly connected to it are still suffering. Kids I take care of and their parents have unbelievably high average ACEs scores, adverse childhood events like being in the home of a drug user, knowing poverty, being abused, or worse. There is no doubt the large migration from middle class down is still impacting this community. Amy Goldstein choosing to highlight this town shined light on many things, and as in her epilogue things have changed for the better some, but it sadly feels this town will never be the same.

A great look at a changing economy

The author does a fantastic job of telling a story in a unique way. The closing of the GM plant in Janesville, WI played out in the headlines, and in articles full of stats that were hard to really comprehend in terms of human impact. This book tells the story from the perspective of a community and several families that have felt the impact for more than a decade now.

This book isn't a political statement, but a look at the impacts of an "invisible hand" economy, and how politicians can try to make an impact or not.

Impressive and accessible tale of two Janesville's

As a resident of Janesville, a social worker, and board member of 2 organizations mentioned in the book, I found this book engaging, accessible, and based in the reality of circumstances in Janesville. I appreciate that this author told this story and would recommend it for anyone trying to understand some of the angst in white, workingclass America. The book alao discusses practical policy solutions when we make smart choices about the structural causes of poverty.