PRAISE FOR THE BIG SQUEEZE

2008-06-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

“The Big Squeeze is a wonderful, important, and timely book.”—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation.

“Steve Greenhouse has written the essential economic book for 2008. Long before most analysts noticed the downturn, Greenhouse was reporting how troubled our economy looked from the bottom-up. A hugely talented reporter with a passion for justice, a shrewd student of the new economy and a brilliant guide to the contemporary labor movement, Greenhouse writes with clarity, energy and grace.”—E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post columnist

“In this shocking and important book, Steven Greenhouse explains and tells the stories of how U.S. workers are paying the price for the lower labor standards and wages that are the result of poorly-managed globalization.”—Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at Columbia University

“An important and infuriating book . . . It's important and infuriating because it tells, in detail, how far we as a nation have sunk from the standards of workplace decency that once existed here.”—Chicago Tribune

“As well-made as a Shaker chair, this book does a remarkable job of explaining the weight accumulating in the chests of so many American wage earners, and the forces behind it.”—Cleveland Plain-Dealer

“New York Times labor correspondent Greenhouse drops a bombshell on local bookstores . . . Greenhouse’s clear and level prose is investigative journalism at its finest.”—Rocky Mountain News

“An excellent book . . . Greenhouse exhibits outrage and moral indignation and an idealism one doesn’t necessarily expect from a hard-bitten New York Times reporter.”--The Washington Monthly

“Riveting . . . a sobering examination of a growing American crisis, and . . . nothing short of brilliant.”—Tucson Citizen

“Greenhouse’s The Big Squeeze is a fresh, probing look at the critical issues facing both blue- and white-collar American workers . . . The Big Squeeze will be an eye-opener for many. Don’t miss it.”—Providence Journal

“As revealing as [the] statistics are, it is the nicely crafted personal experiences of dozens of workers that make the most compelling reading.”—San Diego Union Tribune

“We've read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and Studs Terkel’s Working and perhaps even Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. None of these—not even these combined—prepare you for The Big Squeeze, written by Steven Greenhouse, the New York Times’ workplace and labor reporter since 1995. Marrying the best of these authors with deep research and meticulous reporting, he brings the picture of the American worker up to date and in sharp focus.”—Buffalo News

“Greenhouse’s interviews vividly remind us (that) no economic system can prosper in the long run if people who work hard and play by the rules cannot meet their basic needs.”—New York Times

Well-written with clear themes and telling anecdotes . . . His best material vividly focuses on the always difficult and often abusive working conditions of low-paid employees . . . Such stories get far too little airing—and rarely are they so well told.—Business Week

READ THE FULL REVIEWS:

For the Chicago Tribune review, click here

For the Buffalo News review, click here

For the New York Times review, click here

For the Washington Monthly review, click here

For the Cleveland Plain Dealer review, click here

For the Washington Post review, click here

For the Providence Journal review, click here

For the Business Week review, click here

For the San Francisco Chronicle review, click here

For the Religion Dispatches review, click here

For the Nicholas von Hoffman review in Truthdig, click here

ATTENTION Clergy and Congregants--Interfaith Worker Justice has prepared an excellent Congregational Study Guide on The Big Squeeze. Click here

RECENT NEWS

2008-04-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

The Big Squeeze book launched on April 15th. To order your book visit one of the following:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders
Powells
Random House

BOOK REVIEW
The Cleveland Plain Dealer was the first newspaper to review The Big Squeeze. This is what Karen Long, the newspaper's book editor, had to say in her review, which appeared on April 13.

''The Big Squeeze" offers a timely look at the plight of U.S. workers
by Karen Long

Mike Michell loved the adrenaline rush of catching shoplifters for the Wal-Marts in east Texas. He was a natural, too, nabbing 180 thieves in two years. But when he chased one into the store parking lot, her accomplice drove the getaway car over Michell, breaking off his left kneecap, crushing two discs in his spine and tearing his rotator cuff.

Wal-Mart fired Michell - he says to shed the cost of his workers' compensation. He spent two years in court fighting to force the company to cover his $20,000 back surgery, but finally, "injured, unemployed and with his resources dwindling," Michell gave up. Now the taxpayers of Texas, rather than Wal-Mart, will cover the bill.

This anecdote opens Steven Greenhouse's timely, important "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker." As well-made as a Shaker chair, this book does a remarkable job of explaining the weight accumulating in the chests of so many American wage earners, and the forces behind it.

Greenhouse is fair to Wal-Mart, which rates an entire chapter, and its chief executive officer, Lee Scott. But the labor reporter for The New York Times also notes that the nation's largest employer (with nearly 1.4 million on its payroll) scores a Brobdingnagian footprint on the labor landscape. And last year, it paid its average, full-time hourly worker $19,100 - some $1,500 below the poverty line for a family of four.

"One of the least examined but most important trends taking place in the United States today is the broad decline in the status and treatment of American workers - white-collar and blue-collar workers, middle-class and low-end workers - that . . . has left a broad swath of the American workforce on a lower plane than in decades past, with health coverage, pension benefits, job security, workloads, stress levels and often wages growing worse for millions of Americans," Greenhouse writes.

To read the rest of this review click here