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Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream

Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream

by Jamie K. McCallum

Basic Books ·2020 ·272 pages ·Social Sciences
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
34/99
Maybe Someday

40/99

Critics

Maybe Someday

29/99

Readers

n/a

Scholars

27/99

Rating

52/99

Volume

49/99

Rating

9/99

Volume

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About This Book

An award-winning sociologist reveals the unexpected link between overwork and inequality. Most Americans work too long and too hard, while others lack consistency in their hours and schedules. Work hours declined for a century through hard-fought labor-movement victories, but they've increased significantly since the seventies. Worked Over traces the varied reasons why our lives became tethered to a new rhythm of work, and describes how we might gain a greater say over our labor time -- and build a more just society in the process. Popular discussions typically focus on overworked professionals. But as Jamie K. McCallum demonstrates, from Amazon warehouses to Rust Belt factories to California's gig economy, it's the hours of low-wage workers that are the most volatile and precarious -- and the most subject to crises. What's needed is not individual solutions but collective struggle, and throughout Worked Over McCallum recounts the inspiring stories of those battling today's capitalism to win back control of their time.


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Reviews

"McCallum lucidly explains how the current system came to be and offers hope that the resurgence of socialist principles can lead to improved working conditions."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A well-focused chapter on changes in the welfare system reveals the role of government in demanding workers' time ..."

Charles K. Piehl· Library Journal Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Readers interested in labor politics and relations and political economy will be engaged by this thought-provoking look at the systemic problem of overworking in America caused by poor economic infrastructures and unethical expectations."

Raymond Pun· Booklist Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Drawing on...colorful experiences as well as deep scholarly research, he makes the compelling argument that Americans are losing control of their work time."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"The universal basic services proposal, for example, seems to rely on a socialist government that we don't have."

Sheila McClear· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

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