BookShelf
Our list of relevant books written or recommended by UP members and directors.
Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
A sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism
Americans are a “positive” people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.
Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich Bait and Switch highlights the people who’ve |
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Fired!: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed by Annabelle Gurwitch A collection of hilarious but true tales from people who’ve all gotten the ax, the boot, or been canned at some point in their lives. |
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Are There Any Good Jobs Left?: Career Management in the Age of the Disposable Worker by R. William Holland This book is for and about the millions of people who are between jobs (code for out of work), have been between jobs, or know of someone who has been. |
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Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead by Tamara Draut For the 60 percent of people aged 18-34 who find |
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The Culture of the New Capitalism (currently not available as a premium member benefit) by Richard Sennett Sennett surveys major differences between earlier |
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All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy by Jared Bernstein As the new century unfolds, we face prodigious |
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| A Country that Works
by Andy Stern Today’s average American household is deeply in debt, has set aside inadequate retirement savings, and may or may not have health insurance. More than ever, we are living paycheck to paycheck and too many of us are only one illness or accident away from bankruptcy. SEIU President Andy Stern examines these realities and presents his ideas for reforming our political and social systems to meet the 21st century needs of everyday working Americans. |
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| SOLIDARITY DIVIDED: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice
Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Fernando Gapasin Candid, incisive, and accessible, Solidarity Divided is a critical examination of labor’s current crisis and a plan for a bold new way forward into the twenty-first century. Bill Fletcher and Fernando Gapasin offer a remarkable mix of vivid history and probing analysis. They chart changes in U.S. manufacturing, examine the onslaught of globalization, consider the influence of the environment on labor, and provide the first broad analysis of the fallout from the 2000 and 2004 elections on the U.S. labor movement. |
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| High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families
Peter Gosselin The U.S. economy is wrapping up twenty-five years of some of the strongest, smoothest growth in its history-a performance so sweet economists have given it a name: “the Great Moderation.” So why have so many of us, even those making hundreds of thousands of dollars, arrived at the new century with a gnawing sense that events are moving against our families and ourselves? Drawing on interviews with hundreds of Americans and new statistics he developed, Peter Gosselin traces a quarter-century shift of economic risk from the broad shoulders of business and government to the backs of working people. Peter Gosselin is national economics correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in the Washington bureau and isa visiting fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. |
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| Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)
Jared Bernstein Is Social Security really going bust, and what does that mean to me? If I hire an immigrant, am I hurting a native-born worker? How much can presidents really affect economic outcomes? Why does the stock market go up when employment declines? What’s a “living wage?” Why do I feel so squeezed? If you’d like to know the answers to these questions, premier economist Jared Bernstein is here to help. In “Crunch” he answers these as well as dozens of others he has fielded from working Americans by email, on blogs, and at events where he speaks. Chances are if there’s a stumper you’ve always wanted to ask an economist, it’s solved in this book. Jared Bernstein is a senior economist at the Economic PolicyInstitute. |
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| The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker
Steven Greenhouse “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. Steven Greenhouse is the labor and workplace reporter for the New York Times and is one of the few remaining full-time labor reporters in the country. |
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| Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education
Joe Berry Reclaiming the Ivory Tower examines the situation of adjunct professors in U.S. higher education today, describes the process of organizing them to improve their conditions of work, and puts forward an agenda around which adjunct labor can mobilize and transform the universities. Joe Berry teaches labor education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and chairs the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. |
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Access to Unemployment Insurance Benefits for Contingent Faculty: A manual for applicants and a strategy to gain full rights to benefits Joe Berry, Helena Worthen, and Beverly Stewart |
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Unemployed: A Memoir
Reginald L. Goodwin A downsized engineer recounts his life growing up in an urban ghetto juxtaposed at midlife with the loss of his career and the pursuit of the American Dream. Reginald Goodwin is an expert on unemployment. Three years and eleven months to be exact. Laid off from his position in the semiconductor industry as a Senior Product Engineer at the birth of a spin-off company, Reggie went through a dark time of denial, anger, despair; self-doubt and finally: blogging! |
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SAVING Is for Suckers
Unless You’re Spending On Purpose* Bill Mackay Every dollar you save carries a liability as the government prints more and more money to reverse the greatest financial crisis of a generation. Protect your hard-earned income from inflation by leveraging your most responsive lifestyle-creating asset—your spending! This is a radical twist on budgeting based on spending your way to living your dreams (not saving as others dutifully counsel). This is your insurance for uncertain times. Spending On Purpose* is the only strategy that defends against inflation or deflation and gives you a relevant new way to manage the credit-based consumption your lifestyle (and our economy!) depends on. |
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