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Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America
A groundbreaking, urgent report from the front lines of dirty work--the work that society considers essential but morally compromised
Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of America's most violent and abusive prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society's most ethically troubling jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to the issue of "essential workers," and to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines another, less familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color.
Illuminating the moving, at times harrowing stories of the people doing society's dirty work, and incisively examining the structures of power and complicity that shape their lives, Press reveals fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of work, and the hidden costs of inequality in America.
Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of America's most violent and abusive prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society's most ethically troubling jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to the issue of "essential workers," and to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines another, less familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color.
Illuminating the moving, at times harrowing stories of the people doing society's dirty work, and incisively examining the structures of power and complicity that shape their lives, Press reveals fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of work, and the hidden costs of inequality in America.
303 pages, Hardcover
First published August 17, 2021
288 people are currently reading
7401 people want to read
About the author
Eyal Press
9 books46 followersEyal Press is an American author and journalist based in New York City. He is the author of three books and is a contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times, among other publications. Much of Press' writing and journalism focuses on topics of morality and social and economic inequality.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 241 reviews
April 2, 2023
5 "pop sociology at its most helpful and best" stars !!
8th Favorite Read of 2022 Award
Thank you to Netgalley, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux and the author for an ecopy. This was released August 2021. I am providing an honest review.
I want to start off by stating that I do not think there will be a more important and impactful book that I read this year. This book confronted ME and my complicity in many terrible things that happen everyday in our world that are either just out of my awareness or suppressed or ignored or pushed away. This book appealed to my intellect and broke my heart countless times. This book is the start of a journey on how I can continue to advocate and impact the world on a micro level to not so much elicit change (I do not really have much faith in that anymore) but to provide comfort and respect and community for so many beings that have so much less, have so much more loss and trauma and so many less choices than I. We need to keep our governments and corporations accountable and not simply be cocooned by nice restaurants, new crime series, feel good novels and travel. We in the middle classes have a voice and a bit of clout and we need to use this to make lives better for our brothers and sisters rather than yearn for what the wealthy and upper middle classes have and continue to conquer and acquire under the delusion of "meritocracy."
Mr. Press has written a superlative book that skillfully, artfully and compassionately looks at the people that do society's "dirty work". He presents a beautifully composed and easily understandable theoretical model drawn from sociology, political science and psychodynamic thought to put the case studies and institutional groups in context. He very astutely is able to point his flashlight at all the groups involved and their inter-relationships with emphasis on economic motivations, power hierarchies and the issues of classism, racism and sexism. This is a huge accomplishment especially when done with compassion, hope and deep understanding of all that he has studied.
Mr. Press looks at the following:
1. The American Penal System and the housing of inmates with serious complex mental health issues (not garden variety depression and anxiety folks). He looks at the impact on the inmates, mental health staff and correctional staff as long as the private companies that profit from these most destructive dynamics.
2. The American Drone system where endless wars are fought and countless innocents murdered all in the name of "Keeping America Safe". For me this was most out of consciousness and I have to admit I continue to have nightmares about what I learned here.
3. American slaughter houses and the drive for cheap meat. The undocumented and impoverished workers as well as the domestic beasts that suffer horrendously.
He also takes a smaller look at the oil industry, banking and Information technology.
A tremendously important and well written book backed by both theory and illustrated with many case study examples.
Thanks kindly Mr. Press and I hope this becomes required reading for those studying social work, political policy and most importantly the somnolent middle classes.
8th Favorite Read of 2022 Award
Thank you to Netgalley, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux and the author for an ecopy. This was released August 2021. I am providing an honest review.
I want to start off by stating that I do not think there will be a more important and impactful book that I read this year. This book confronted ME and my complicity in many terrible things that happen everyday in our world that are either just out of my awareness or suppressed or ignored or pushed away. This book appealed to my intellect and broke my heart countless times. This book is the start of a journey on how I can continue to advocate and impact the world on a micro level to not so much elicit change (I do not really have much faith in that anymore) but to provide comfort and respect and community for so many beings that have so much less, have so much more loss and trauma and so many less choices than I. We need to keep our governments and corporations accountable and not simply be cocooned by nice restaurants, new crime series, feel good novels and travel. We in the middle classes have a voice and a bit of clout and we need to use this to make lives better for our brothers and sisters rather than yearn for what the wealthy and upper middle classes have and continue to conquer and acquire under the delusion of "meritocracy."
Mr. Press has written a superlative book that skillfully, artfully and compassionately looks at the people that do society's "dirty work". He presents a beautifully composed and easily understandable theoretical model drawn from sociology, political science and psychodynamic thought to put the case studies and institutional groups in context. He very astutely is able to point his flashlight at all the groups involved and their inter-relationships with emphasis on economic motivations, power hierarchies and the issues of classism, racism and sexism. This is a huge accomplishment especially when done with compassion, hope and deep understanding of all that he has studied.
Mr. Press looks at the following:
1. The American Penal System and the housing of inmates with serious complex mental health issues (not garden variety depression and anxiety folks). He looks at the impact on the inmates, mental health staff and correctional staff as long as the private companies that profit from these most destructive dynamics.
2. The American Drone system where endless wars are fought and countless innocents murdered all in the name of "Keeping America Safe". For me this was most out of consciousness and I have to admit I continue to have nightmares about what I learned here.
3. American slaughter houses and the drive for cheap meat. The undocumented and impoverished workers as well as the domestic beasts that suffer horrendously.
He also takes a smaller look at the oil industry, banking and Information technology.
A tremendously important and well written book backed by both theory and illustrated with many case study examples.
Thanks kindly Mr. Press and I hope this becomes required reading for those studying social work, political policy and most importantly the somnolent middle classes.
November 26, 2021
A well-researched and well-written book about different types of stigmatized jobs in the United States that contribute to what many view as moral bad: guards who patrol violent and abusive prisons, undocumented immigrants who man the “kill floors” of slaughterhouses, drone pilots who assassinate vulnerable people abroad, and tech workers who contribute to increased surveillance and monitoring of unsuspecting individuals. Eyal Press does a fantastic job of showing how these forms of work, especially the ones that poor and working class people get saddled with (i.e., not the tech workers who often have prestigious degrees) dehumanize these employees and often result in intense mental health problems such as PTSD both for the employees and their loved ones. Press also zooms out and highlights how people of privileged positions in society, such as upper class individuals, contribute to the existence of these jobs through engaging in behaviors such as relying on fossil fuels, consuming meat, and funding prisons through our tax dollars. However, those of us in these positions of privilege often turn our attention away from the “dirty work” that Press writes about in this book, because it can feel easier to let more disadvantaged people suffer than to face our own complicity in their oppression.
Overall I enjoyed this book a lot and appreciated how Press heavily featured the voices of those within these professions. He writes intelligently about why and how industries and corporations keep these types of jobs away from the public eye, as well as how those of us with privilege are just as complicit as those carrying out this work unless we take action against the systems that create these jobs in the first place. Throughout the book I felt curious about Press’s own positionality in relation to these issues and if the book would have benefitted from Press just slightly more explicitly naming some of the systems that maintain these forms of labor (e.g., white supremacy, capitalism). Still, an important read I would recommend to those who aren’t already highly familiar with each of the jobs featured in this book.
Overall I enjoyed this book a lot and appreciated how Press heavily featured the voices of those within these professions. He writes intelligently about why and how industries and corporations keep these types of jobs away from the public eye, as well as how those of us with privilege are just as complicit as those carrying out this work unless we take action against the systems that create these jobs in the first place. Throughout the book I felt curious about Press’s own positionality in relation to these issues and if the book would have benefitted from Press just slightly more explicitly naming some of the systems that maintain these forms of labor (e.g., white supremacy, capitalism). Still, an important read I would recommend to those who aren’t already highly familiar with each of the jobs featured in this book.
December 20, 2022
A Must Read
This was one of the most depressing books that I have ever read, almost. I am not willing to go into detail about it. The worst chapters were on our prisons and the harm that the guards are causing the inmates. Very Sadistic. Worse than the Stanford prison experiment. The other chapter that I found Horrifying was on slaughter houses. Again very sadistic. Not only are some of the animals tortured, but the people who watch this torture End up Having mental problems and do not last in the job.
And we call America a civilized nation when We are so barbaric at times.
NOTE. While president Obama passed for prison reform bills, it was not enough to stop the harm that is going on in our prisons. And While he pardoned more prisoners than any other president, So many more needed to be pardoned. You do what you can do.
This was one of the most depressing books that I have ever read, almost. I am not willing to go into detail about it. The worst chapters were on our prisons and the harm that the guards are causing the inmates. Very Sadistic. Worse than the Stanford prison experiment. The other chapter that I found Horrifying was on slaughter houses. Again very sadistic. Not only are some of the animals tortured, but the people who watch this torture End up Having mental problems and do not last in the job.
And we call America a civilized nation when We are so barbaric at times.
NOTE. While president Obama passed for prison reform bills, it was not enough to stop the harm that is going on in our prisons. And While he pardoned more prisoners than any other president, So many more needed to be pardoned. You do what you can do.
September 11, 2021
"How many 'good people' prefer not to know too much about what is being done in their name? And how much easier is this to achieve when what gets done can be delegated to a separate, largely invisible class of 'dirty workers'?"
When you think of dirty jobs, you might think of garbage collectors and sewer pipe cleaners, or if you're a Dickens fan, a small, grimy child scrubbing soot from the inside of a chimney.
Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America is not about those physically dirty jobs, but those that are morally "dirty".
Author Eyal Press delves into those jobs that most of us prefer not to think about, but that someone has to do. This is not just work that is unpleasant. Mr Press describes dirty work as "work that causes substantial harm either to other people or to nonhuman animals and the environment, often through the infliction of violence. Second, it entails doing something that “good people”—the respectable members of society—see as dirty and morally compromised. Third, it is work that is injurious to the people who do it, " whether morally, physically, or both.
The "good" people rely on this work being done, and see it as necessary, but can turn a blind eye and, if confronted, can disavow any responsibility. Instead, we tend to blame the people who do these jobs, look down on them, and hold them responsible, even though their jobs would not exist if they weren't deemed necessary by the majority of people.
The book is divided into four main job categories: corrections officers and health care providers who work in prisons, drone pilots, slaughterhouse workers, and oil industry employees.
Mr Press discusses the moral and psychological toll these jobs take on the majority of people who perform them. He interviews many of these workers and the book is more human interest than statistics. I liked reading about one or two workers per category but sometimes grew bored by the repetition of many peoples' stories.
Still, it's a book worth reading, repetitious or not, if only to get you thinking about the plight of people who have little choice but to perform these roles, often due to there not being many other jobs where they live, or are the only ones that pay a living wage.
I had to skip the section on slaughterhouses, but as a vegan who in no way supports the torture and murder of billions of animals, I am not the one who is responsible and needs to read this. If you consume animal products, whether by eating meat, wearing leather, eating dairy or white sugar or gummy bears (made with gelatin which is made with animal bones), you are just as responsible for the extreme suffering of animals as the people who are all but forced to work there.
I am, however, responsible for the other jobs, both through my tax dollars that pay for prisons and drone warfare and by relying on fossil fuels. I am contributing to the moral suffering of many people who work in these industries, as well as to the abuse of people in prisons, the murder of women and children and other innocent people in drone strikes, and the destruction of our planet.
Until all the "good" people begin acknowledging our part in "dirty" work, we will not demand change. We will go about our lives happily relegating the dirty jobs to those society thinks so little of. We will continue to turn a blind eye to suffering, and take no responsibility when we are confronted with it.
But we need not personally push the button to detonate the drone bomb, or extinguish the life of a sentient creature in a slaughterhouse, or silently watch as people in prisons are abused and sometimes murdered in order to be responsible. It is not just the responsibility of those who are forced to do the jobs most of us don't want to even think about -- it is all of us who are responsible for dirty work.
When you think of dirty jobs, you might think of garbage collectors and sewer pipe cleaners, or if you're a Dickens fan, a small, grimy child scrubbing soot from the inside of a chimney.
Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America is not about those physically dirty jobs, but those that are morally "dirty".
Author Eyal Press delves into those jobs that most of us prefer not to think about, but that someone has to do. This is not just work that is unpleasant. Mr Press describes dirty work as "work that causes substantial harm either to other people or to nonhuman animals and the environment, often through the infliction of violence. Second, it entails doing something that “good people”—the respectable members of society—see as dirty and morally compromised. Third, it is work that is injurious to the people who do it, " whether morally, physically, or both.
The "good" people rely on this work being done, and see it as necessary, but can turn a blind eye and, if confronted, can disavow any responsibility. Instead, we tend to blame the people who do these jobs, look down on them, and hold them responsible, even though their jobs would not exist if they weren't deemed necessary by the majority of people.
The book is divided into four main job categories: corrections officers and health care providers who work in prisons, drone pilots, slaughterhouse workers, and oil industry employees.
Mr Press discusses the moral and psychological toll these jobs take on the majority of people who perform them. He interviews many of these workers and the book is more human interest than statistics. I liked reading about one or two workers per category but sometimes grew bored by the repetition of many peoples' stories.
Still, it's a book worth reading, repetitious or not, if only to get you thinking about the plight of people who have little choice but to perform these roles, often due to there not being many other jobs where they live, or are the only ones that pay a living wage.
I had to skip the section on slaughterhouses, but as a vegan who in no way supports the torture and murder of billions of animals, I am not the one who is responsible and needs to read this. If you consume animal products, whether by eating meat, wearing leather, eating dairy or white sugar or gummy bears (made with gelatin which is made with animal bones), you are just as responsible for the extreme suffering of animals as the people who are all but forced to work there.
I am, however, responsible for the other jobs, both through my tax dollars that pay for prisons and drone warfare and by relying on fossil fuels. I am contributing to the moral suffering of many people who work in these industries, as well as to the abuse of people in prisons, the murder of women and children and other innocent people in drone strikes, and the destruction of our planet.
Until all the "good" people begin acknowledging our part in "dirty" work, we will not demand change. We will go about our lives happily relegating the dirty jobs to those society thinks so little of. We will continue to turn a blind eye to suffering, and take no responsibility when we are confronted with it.
But we need not personally push the button to detonate the drone bomb, or extinguish the life of a sentient creature in a slaughterhouse, or silently watch as people in prisons are abused and sometimes murdered in order to be responsible. It is not just the responsibility of those who are forced to do the jobs most of us don't want to even think about -- it is all of us who are responsible for dirty work.
June 11, 2023
The "dirty work" to which the book's title refers are not situations that create dirty hands. Rather it is referring to a more metaphoric kind of "dirty." It's work the inflicts moral injury on the worker. A more complete definition is provided in the following excerpt.
• Mental health worker in a prison psychiatric ward
• Prison guards
• Military remote drone operators
• Military service
• Slaughter house workers
• Oil platform workers
When it comes to explaining why the above jobs create moral injury, the devil is in the details. Many of the above listed jobs if performed according to professional standards, if done in a safe environment, and if paid with livable compensation do not necessarily need to be "dirty" work. Granted that vegetarians will never condone slaughter house work and pacifists will not accept military service, but a case could be made for the above listed jobs that, even though they may be unpleasant to perform, do contribute to the common good of society and don't deserve to be classed as dirty work.
But there is something about low prestige work that seems to attract sadistic management. This book provides details of specific work situations that deserve to be described as jobs from hell. The workers were subjected to lack of respect, unsafe conditions, abuse from management, and willful neglect from governmental oversight. During the recent pandemic most of these jobs were ruled to be "essential workers" and were expected to remain at work in spite of the dangers of infection. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the public that benefited from these jobs preferred to remain ignorant of their existence.
The book highlights near its end some higher paid jobs that are damaging to the public good and deserve to be scorned by the public, but they were able to arrogantly carry on because of the rules of meritocracy. Speculators who created the 2008 financial crisis and tech workers who devise algorithms to secretly collect information about individuals are examples of this.
For readers who understand its message, this book can contribute a heightened awareness of the fact that life that is free of "dirty work" isn't as untainted as previously imagined.
First, it is work that causes substantial harm either to other people or to nonhuman animals and the environment, often through the infliction of violence.So what are some examples of such work? Below I've listed some of the jobs highlighted by this book as fitting its definition of dirty work.
Second, it entails doing something that "good people”—the respectable members of society—see as dirty and morally compromised.
Third, it is work that is injurious to the people who do it, leading them either to feel devalued and stigmatized by others or to feel that they have betrayed their own core values and beliefs.
Last and most important, it is contingent on a tacit mandate from the "good people," who see this work as a necessary part of the social order but don't explicitly assent to it and can, if need be, disavow responsibility for it.
• Mental health worker in a prison psychiatric ward
• Prison guards
• Military remote drone operators
• Military service
• Slaughter house workers
• Oil platform workers
When it comes to explaining why the above jobs create moral injury, the devil is in the details. Many of the above listed jobs if performed according to professional standards, if done in a safe environment, and if paid with livable compensation do not necessarily need to be "dirty" work. Granted that vegetarians will never condone slaughter house work and pacifists will not accept military service, but a case could be made for the above listed jobs that, even though they may be unpleasant to perform, do contribute to the common good of society and don't deserve to be classed as dirty work.
But there is something about low prestige work that seems to attract sadistic management. This book provides details of specific work situations that deserve to be described as jobs from hell. The workers were subjected to lack of respect, unsafe conditions, abuse from management, and willful neglect from governmental oversight. During the recent pandemic most of these jobs were ruled to be "essential workers" and were expected to remain at work in spite of the dangers of infection. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the public that benefited from these jobs preferred to remain ignorant of their existence.
The book highlights near its end some higher paid jobs that are damaging to the public good and deserve to be scorned by the public, but they were able to arrogantly carry on because of the rules of meritocracy. Speculators who created the 2008 financial crisis and tech workers who devise algorithms to secretly collect information about individuals are examples of this.
For readers who understand its message, this book can contribute a heightened awareness of the fact that life that is free of "dirty work" isn't as untainted as previously imagined.
July 12, 2022
Specific reaction and review tomorrow. This has a 13 page Introduction alone. Dirty work being redefined here from what dirty work meant in the last century. Extremely padded survey of social by products for 5 individuals in their jobs.
I need to think about this for a day. That’s how generalized and stereotyped are the fallouts of his work context sensibilities.
Later: I want to let you know what his definition of "dirty work" is here. For 3/4ths of my life, "dirty work" was the following: If you took a shower before work and went to work, it wasn't. If you took a shower AFTER work (often at work) and then went home that was "dirty work". And all of us did it too at some point. My Dad and most of the men in my long life did it for decade after decade. Factory, streets and sans., labor construction etc. High rise plastering, working 22nd floor grids etc. You name it, we did it.
This is not that "dirty work". This is "dirty work" in the sense of it causing PTSD or some mental incapacity impacted by its tasks. Something entirely different. So working on an off shore rig would be dangerous and lethal mentally, emotionally etc. Or guarding prisoners, or working the chicken line etc. Or drone pathing.
The 5 categories chosen made my jaw drop. In reality. I had to resemble the emoji for that SHOCK to this author's equations of comparisons. So eating chickens becomes equivocated to the Germans' ignoring or allowing camps etc. (Introduction gives you the bottom line of the collective guilt core property examples.) That's the type of category generalizing for guilt laden in repetitive accusatory declarations here. We should all be hanging our heads and taking mood meds for the guilt of appropriating collective or individual warmth or food? These supposedly hidden misery jobs he posits on scales of guilt the rest of us should assume because they exist. On theory par for his German examples of knowledge about human death camps serious.
Ironically the two jobs I can think of off the top of my head that ARE giving PTSD routinely, he never mentioned once. Being a soldier (on the front lines and not in front of a computer) or an abortionist.
When I was a child we traipsed through the abattoirs at the Chicago Stockyards. I did, three times at least with Girl Scouts or some school trip. I also talked to workers there while they worked -not on a break. My Grandpa worked for Swift. Eyal Press is a name you should remember- it's going to be a "warning" label for me. What absurd eyes! And these jobs are "hidden"? Nope.
How would an author or outfit (Eyal Press) judge any life on a farm or anywhere before 1800 by these criteria? Even on this highly subjective level. Irony indeed. A full reaction to this book could have been much longer. My mouth dropped open more with each chapter. La-la land. I refrain with any further specifics.
I need to think about this for a day. That’s how generalized and stereotyped are the fallouts of his work context sensibilities.
Later: I want to let you know what his definition of "dirty work" is here. For 3/4ths of my life, "dirty work" was the following: If you took a shower before work and went to work, it wasn't. If you took a shower AFTER work (often at work) and then went home that was "dirty work". And all of us did it too at some point. My Dad and most of the men in my long life did it for decade after decade. Factory, streets and sans., labor construction etc. High rise plastering, working 22nd floor grids etc. You name it, we did it.
This is not that "dirty work". This is "dirty work" in the sense of it causing PTSD or some mental incapacity impacted by its tasks. Something entirely different. So working on an off shore rig would be dangerous and lethal mentally, emotionally etc. Or guarding prisoners, or working the chicken line etc. Or drone pathing.
The 5 categories chosen made my jaw drop. In reality. I had to resemble the emoji for that SHOCK to this author's equations of comparisons. So eating chickens becomes equivocated to the Germans' ignoring or allowing camps etc. (Introduction gives you the bottom line of the collective guilt core property examples.) That's the type of category generalizing for guilt laden in repetitive accusatory declarations here. We should all be hanging our heads and taking mood meds for the guilt of appropriating collective or individual warmth or food? These supposedly hidden misery jobs he posits on scales of guilt the rest of us should assume because they exist. On theory par for his German examples of knowledge about human death camps serious.
Ironically the two jobs I can think of off the top of my head that ARE giving PTSD routinely, he never mentioned once. Being a soldier (on the front lines and not in front of a computer) or an abortionist.
When I was a child we traipsed through the abattoirs at the Chicago Stockyards. I did, three times at least with Girl Scouts or some school trip. I also talked to workers there while they worked -not on a break. My Grandpa worked for Swift. Eyal Press is a name you should remember- it's going to be a "warning" label for me. What absurd eyes! And these jobs are "hidden"? Nope.
How would an author or outfit (Eyal Press) judge any life on a farm or anywhere before 1800 by these criteria? Even on this highly subjective level. Irony indeed. A full reaction to this book could have been much longer. My mouth dropped open more with each chapter. La-la land. I refrain with any further specifics.
October 10, 2021
This book is at its strongest when doing what it claims is its primary purpose: delving into the lives and moral complexities of those who do "dirty work," basically defined as work causing harm. Unfortunately, there is a lot of other padding. While some background on the various institutions is doubtless necessary, any habitual reader of the news (which most readers of this book are likely to be) will be familiar with the issues and contexts described. Press even misses some of the most prominent pandemic abuses (Tyson executives betting on how many of their workers would get Covid, for example). Also, not all the contexts quite fit the overarching "moral injury" framework- the slaughterhouse workers are abused, but not generally morally conflicted about what they do, for example.
Finally, the tone of the book is a bit off- an indignant preachiness that again seems misplaced given that the book's target audience is likely neither ignorant of nor indifferent to these issues, no matter how much Press insists they must be. On the other hand, Press seems barely to think about the many people who will ignore his call for action because they think that people in prison deserve to be there, are unconcerned about worker rights or fossil fuels, think drones kill terrorists, etc....much less the voting restrictions and authoritarian tendencies that make change in many of the relevant states (Texas, Florida) nearly impossible to come by.
Again, the portraits of the workers themselves are powerful and make the book well worth reading, though not flawless.
Finally, the tone of the book is a bit off- an indignant preachiness that again seems misplaced given that the book's target audience is likely neither ignorant of nor indifferent to these issues, no matter how much Press insists they must be. On the other hand, Press seems barely to think about the many people who will ignore his call for action because they think that people in prison deserve to be there, are unconcerned about worker rights or fossil fuels, think drones kill terrorists, etc....much less the voting restrictions and authoritarian tendencies that make change in many of the relevant states (Texas, Florida) nearly impossible to come by.
Again, the portraits of the workers themselves are powerful and make the book well worth reading, though not flawless.
August 18, 2021
Dirty Work is a deeply harrowing, thought-provoking, and incisive indictment of the choices we make as a society to relegate morally dubious work to some of the least privileged and most disadvantaged groups among us. Buttressed with various case studies from select industries, Press argues that Americans have long disposed of the morally objectionable work to the less fortunate through an "unconscious mandate" while deflecting the blame and burden associated with engaging in such heinous work by quite literally reducing it to the shadowy corners of our world.
In exposing the veins of hypocrisy that run through American society (or any society for that matter), Press sheds light on how using our proxy moral agents as scapegoats belies the classist/racist power dynamics that lead said agents to "volunteer" for such tasks in the first place. The illusion of choice, and the resulting shame, societal ejection, and accusatory branding that take place, all illuminate the ways in which the presence and tacit importance of dirty work speak more about us than about the workers who carry them out.
Press does a splendid job introducing and applying various sociological concepts/terms and weaving them into the stories he's telling about the people he met and interviewed. All of the people he introduces have heartbreaking stories that raise consequential questions about the unspoken moral consensuses we've reached as it relates to the food we eat, the wars we wage, the people we (don't) let in our borders, the punishments we mete out to the most vulnerable populations, and other morally grey issues that make us squirm in our seats.
Press skillfully calls out the privilege that underlies our ability to stand on some imagined moral high ground and spew judgment at ICE agents, all in the name of fighting forced separations of families, or at COs in the name of fighting mass incarceration, or at drone soldiers in the name of protecting peace, or at oil rig workers in the name of protecting the environment. Having such scapegoats obfuscates the reality and hard truth that these systems and institutions are in place because Americans chose to have it this way, and the people who are bearing the brunt of the morally injurious work are ironically the ones who can't afford to leave it behind. More importantly, our myopic focus on individuals who commit objectionable acts within such broken systems hinders our collective ability to question, expose, and hold accountable the systemic issues that are often the root cause.
A horrifying pattern that Press observes is that calls around labor rights and conditions, such as the lethal working conditions in the meatpacking industry or the oil industry, often don't get the attention they deserve while ancillary issues surrounding the quality of our meat or the harmful effects of the oil industry on the environment do. Press aptly describes this as the more privileged class using virtue as a currency, "buying their way out of feeling complicit in the impure, dirty practices" of the industries they dare not look at for fear of seeing/knowing too much.
An essential, timely, and unequivocally illuminating book that I would recommend to anyone. If you enjoyed the journalistic rigor, informative observations, and perhaps shock value of books like Evicted, you won't be disappointed with Dirty Work.
Big thank you to the publisher for making this ARC available through Netgalley!
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In exposing the veins of hypocrisy that run through American society (or any society for that matter), Press sheds light on how using our proxy moral agents as scapegoats belies the classist/racist power dynamics that lead said agents to "volunteer" for such tasks in the first place. The illusion of choice, and the resulting shame, societal ejection, and accusatory branding that take place, all illuminate the ways in which the presence and tacit importance of dirty work speak more about us than about the workers who carry them out.
Press does a splendid job introducing and applying various sociological concepts/terms and weaving them into the stories he's telling about the people he met and interviewed. All of the people he introduces have heartbreaking stories that raise consequential questions about the unspoken moral consensuses we've reached as it relates to the food we eat, the wars we wage, the people we (don't) let in our borders, the punishments we mete out to the most vulnerable populations, and other morally grey issues that make us squirm in our seats.
Press skillfully calls out the privilege that underlies our ability to stand on some imagined moral high ground and spew judgment at ICE agents, all in the name of fighting forced separations of families, or at COs in the name of fighting mass incarceration, or at drone soldiers in the name of protecting peace, or at oil rig workers in the name of protecting the environment. Having such scapegoats obfuscates the reality and hard truth that these systems and institutions are in place because Americans chose to have it this way, and the people who are bearing the brunt of the morally injurious work are ironically the ones who can't afford to leave it behind. More importantly, our myopic focus on individuals who commit objectionable acts within such broken systems hinders our collective ability to question, expose, and hold accountable the systemic issues that are often the root cause.
A horrifying pattern that Press observes is that calls around labor rights and conditions, such as the lethal working conditions in the meatpacking industry or the oil industry, often don't get the attention they deserve while ancillary issues surrounding the quality of our meat or the harmful effects of the oil industry on the environment do. Press aptly describes this as the more privileged class using virtue as a currency, "buying their way out of feeling complicit in the impure, dirty practices" of the industries they dare not look at for fear of seeing/knowing too much.
An essential, timely, and unequivocally illuminating book that I would recommend to anyone. If you enjoyed the journalistic rigor, informative observations, and perhaps shock value of books like Evicted, you won't be disappointed with Dirty Work.
Big thank you to the publisher for making this ARC available through Netgalley!
Cups of Tea | Blog | Bookstagram
August 25, 2022
I found this book when Jaidee reviewed it, and knew immediately it was one I would need to read. And it did not disappoint. I was both fascinated and horrified as I listened to this, but it has honestly made me re-evaluate my stance and opinions on some of these jobs, because I abso-fucking-lutely identified with some of the attitudes that were being criticized here, to my shame and regret. (For example, that sadistic, authoritarian, abusive, controlling, power-abusing people, gravitate toward prison corrections officer positions, rather than it often being the only work available in areas of economic drought, where prisons are generally the only thing around, and that the jobs are taken out of necessity, and just crush people's souls into cruelty because it's just that kind of system. For example.)
So, yeah. This was an eye opening read for me, and as I listened to it on my nightly walks, I found myself constantly being shown new perspectives on things that it is SOOOOOOO easy to make snap judgements on, and having to rethink my entire rationale for some of the ways that I knee-jerk react to certain jobs, or the people who hold them.
And this to me is a very very good thing. It is why I read books like this. I want to expand my horizons and understanding and educate myself on issues that may cause me to think differently. Books like this, which offer a nuanced and insightful examination of how society operates to cast some people in horrific roles the rest of us rely on for order or convenience or the appearance of safety or whatever, while we avert our eyes AND denigrate the people who fulfill these roles... that's the kind of book I think is critical, and should be required reading.
I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong, and this book showed me about 500 different examples of it. Now it's up to me to take this knowledge and do better.
So, yeah. This was an eye opening read for me, and as I listened to it on my nightly walks, I found myself constantly being shown new perspectives on things that it is SOOOOOOO easy to make snap judgements on, and having to rethink my entire rationale for some of the ways that I knee-jerk react to certain jobs, or the people who hold them.
And this to me is a very very good thing. It is why I read books like this. I want to expand my horizons and understanding and educate myself on issues that may cause me to think differently. Books like this, which offer a nuanced and insightful examination of how society operates to cast some people in horrific roles the rest of us rely on for order or convenience or the appearance of safety or whatever, while we avert our eyes AND denigrate the people who fulfill these roles... that's the kind of book I think is critical, and should be required reading.
I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong, and this book showed me about 500 different examples of it. Now it's up to me to take this knowledge and do better.
September 7, 2021
Chapters on prison work, drone support work, meatpacking, cobalt and tech. Nothing that groundbreaking in the reportage. You've probably read about some of these things already, if you're coming to this book. What is meaningful and worthwhile is the constant tie back to the broader moral implications to the general populace of this work. Bottom line is we are generally complicit either through apathy or willfully turning a blind eye, in perpetuating work that is dehumanizing and/or necessitates moral injury.
August 16, 2023
A deep dive into what capitalism has wrought in America and its labor force today. You know the truth — a lot of the work that's deemed "essential" in this country, and throughout much of the West, is work that's heavily stigmatized. By the same token, many of those who are compelled to work regardless of global events — during the recent pandemic, say — aren't celebrated as heroes but, on the contrary, are looked down upon and seen as dirty, as bottom feeders.
Case in point: I was discussing this book recently with someone I know and I'd barely gotten the words "prison guard" out of my mouth before they interjected with "you'd have to be a psychopath to do that job."
"Or just be poor," I replied, "a member of America's forgotten class."
I can't claim to have been any more enlightened on this topic in the past, but interactions I've had with prison guards and then reading this book have genuinely opened my eyes. I've since come to realize that those of us who ask rhetorically "who'd want to be a prison guard?" are too privileged to understand what it means to have to work a job just to make ends meet rather than it being our passion or "calling."
"Dirty Work" put me in mind of the 2008 Japanese film "Departures." The film is about a cellist who ends up having to take a job in a mortuary and has to deal with the stigma that such a job comes with in Japan, where working with the dead is seen as its own "dirty work."
It's a great film, and I highly recommend you watch it, but it amuses me that the feelings elicited by the film (something along the lines of, "how could people be so ignorant that they consider those who do such essential work as beneath them?") didn't cause me at the time to look at the similar ignorance and arrogance that "elites" (I can't think of a better word to call those of us who frown at such work) in my own country hold toward our fellow humans who work in slaughterhouses.
The irony, of course, is that we rely on these same "dirty workers" to ensure that the meat we imbibe is "cheap" — or at least, that it comes at no conceivable cost to ourselves (though the animals and the workers pay a far too heavy price).
Other sections of this book deal with the War on Terror and its aftermath, particularly the drone warfare that has become a significant part of America's foreign policy, the consequences of which we virtually all ignore.
This is a great book and I found that even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. That's what great books do, and major kudos to Eyal Press for tackling an unsexy topic with such urgency.
Case in point: I was discussing this book recently with someone I know and I'd barely gotten the words "prison guard" out of my mouth before they interjected with "you'd have to be a psychopath to do that job."
"Or just be poor," I replied, "a member of America's forgotten class."
I can't claim to have been any more enlightened on this topic in the past, but interactions I've had with prison guards and then reading this book have genuinely opened my eyes. I've since come to realize that those of us who ask rhetorically "who'd want to be a prison guard?" are too privileged to understand what it means to have to work a job just to make ends meet rather than it being our passion or "calling."
"Dirty Work" put me in mind of the 2008 Japanese film "Departures." The film is about a cellist who ends up having to take a job in a mortuary and has to deal with the stigma that such a job comes with in Japan, where working with the dead is seen as its own "dirty work."
It's a great film, and I highly recommend you watch it, but it amuses me that the feelings elicited by the film (something along the lines of, "how could people be so ignorant that they consider those who do such essential work as beneath them?") didn't cause me at the time to look at the similar ignorance and arrogance that "elites" (I can't think of a better word to call those of us who frown at such work) in my own country hold toward our fellow humans who work in slaughterhouses.
The irony, of course, is that we rely on these same "dirty workers" to ensure that the meat we imbibe is "cheap" — or at least, that it comes at no conceivable cost to ourselves (though the animals and the workers pay a far too heavy price).
Other sections of this book deal with the War on Terror and its aftermath, particularly the drone warfare that has become a significant part of America's foreign policy, the consequences of which we virtually all ignore.
This is a great book and I found that even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. That's what great books do, and major kudos to Eyal Press for tackling an unsexy topic with such urgency.
January 2, 2022
An eye-opening and discomfiting read that highlights the realities faced by those in our society who perform the “dirty,” albeit essential, jobs that are hidden from the public’s view. For those of us (i.e. the virtuous consumers) who have the privilege of being shielded from the plights of workers who perform these jobs, we are often quick to cast judgment or actively turn a blind eye when the uncomfortable truths are revealed to us. Without taking the time to place ourselves in the shoes of those on the receiving end of our judgment, we fail to understand the moral injuries that many of these workers endure and don’t realize that we are just as complicit in perpetuating the systems that we are disgusted by. “Dirty Work” shows the reader the importance of recognizing inequity in our society as it relates to moral inequity, leading one to understand the existence of "a virtual divide that all too often mirrors the class divide" due to the inextricable correlation between virtue and privilege.
September 23, 2021
Oh my. What a powerful, moving, thought-provoking, challenging book. If you "like" watching Frontline on PBS, then this book is definitely for you.
Do you ... feel safe in your community? benefit from our armed forces? eat meat? poultry? drive a car? ride a bus, train or plane? If yes to any of these, then you benefit from people who are out of sight, toiling in Dirty Work.
The toll this work takes on the workers, so that we can benefit, is told through personal conversations with dirty workers in each of the above professions and more. Their work is dangerous, frequently involves death, often is not a matter of choice, is routinely kept out of sight, and usually the public likes it that way. It often leaves the workers with PTSD, broken bodies, alcohol or drug addition, broken families and more. This is the price we pay.
Do you ... feel safe in your community? benefit from our armed forces? eat meat? poultry? drive a car? ride a bus, train or plane? If yes to any of these, then you benefit from people who are out of sight, toiling in Dirty Work.
The toll this work takes on the workers, so that we can benefit, is told through personal conversations with dirty workers in each of the above professions and more. Their work is dangerous, frequently involves death, often is not a matter of choice, is routinely kept out of sight, and usually the public likes it that way. It often leaves the workers with PTSD, broken bodies, alcohol or drug addition, broken families and more. This is the price we pay.
July 21, 2022
This is a book about the current state of global capitalism, but it is also about something nearly inevitable: dirty work. Defined by a sociologist nearly a century ago we "unethical activity...delegated to certain agents, and then conveniently disallowed," Press describes the jobs that are most disturbing and yet which we as upstanding citizens allow to happen.
Going all the way back to the slave trade, occupations from prison guards to drone operators are analyzed in depth. Through interviews with those involved, the consequences of so-called "moral injury" are showcased in often graphic detail. There are multiple moments in the book that could require a trigger warning, so be warned that this book is not for those who are uncomfortable with looking into the darkness.
Focused largely on those who would find it hard to leave their jobs, this is less about white collar or tech workers and more about those on the true margins. It is a deep dive into the abyss, and will leave you thinking. Throughout the book, Press reminds us of the need to take collective action and stand up against the worst of dirty work. Only together is a better future possible.
Going all the way back to the slave trade, occupations from prison guards to drone operators are analyzed in depth. Through interviews with those involved, the consequences of so-called "moral injury" are showcased in often graphic detail. There are multiple moments in the book that could require a trigger warning, so be warned that this book is not for those who are uncomfortable with looking into the darkness.
Focused largely on those who would find it hard to leave their jobs, this is less about white collar or tech workers and more about those on the true margins. It is a deep dive into the abyss, and will leave you thinking. Throughout the book, Press reminds us of the need to take collective action and stand up against the worst of dirty work. Only together is a better future possible.
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February 13, 2025Wow! Such an important read. Dirty workers are the reason we have cheap goods and why we can live in blissful, ignorant privilege. This exposed the moral injury of a population with no other choice but to do the dirty work of correctional officers, slaughterhouse workers, and oil rig employees. This book really weighed on me, and I felt like I was walking around with a dark cloud over my head the whole time I was reading. You cannot do anything without complying with the dirty work system—buy clothes, go out to eat, buy groceries, VOTE. Makes me sick but we have to acknowledge it and interact with books like this.
August 22, 2023
I knew much of what was in this book already, so I can't give it 5 stars. It is however an excellent book on the jobs that people do that are looked down on, but need to get done... because society wants things. And the people who get taken advantage of because of their lower social status.
January 26, 2022
It’s not easy to read this book because it implicates us all in the “dirty jobs” done so we can live life the way we do. But it is a well-researched and insightful look at what some people must do for work—and how we are all implicated in their moral suffering.
June 17, 2024
I've already talked about this book with several different people, and the best way I can describe it as a plea for people to understand the bystanders role in society's dirty deeds. Sure, most of us aren't the ones firing the gun, but if we're the ones safe behind the shooter then how innocent are we really? If this doesn't make sense then my bad I'm tired. Read it yourself.
January 4, 2022
We often think about equality in America in terms of the obvious quality of life measures. Eyal's thesis is that there's a moral inequality too: we rely on work that capitalism obscures from plain view so that we can compartmentalize our ethics. This is true not just for meat packers, it also arises with drone pilots. These workers suffer in unacknowledged ways.
June 3, 2021
"Dirty Work" by Eyal Press is a nonfiction book comprised of descriptions about different sectors of employment in America that are unsafe, underpaid, and undervalued. The first section of the book, which is about mental health clinicians and the care of mentally ill people in prison, is basically an extension of Press's 2016 New Yorker article. It was interesting, and sad, to get a closer look into how impossible it is for people committed to helping mentally ill incarcerated people to actually do their jobs, not to mention that prisoners are tortured. The next section is about the people, a large percentage of whom are immigrant, working in the meatpacking industry. The "dirtiness" of this job in terms of the everyday nature of this occupation has only been exacerbated by the huge risks that employees were forced to take as essential workers during the pandemic. Many workers give up the already low wages earned in this job to take even lower wage jobs because of how brutal working in meatpacking plants is. There is also a section of "Dirty Work" on drone operators working in the United States, an occupation that is often buried beneath our idea about who works in defense. The final section of the book highlights the emotional and physical hardships faced by people working in the energy and tech industries, and while these jobs tend to be much higher paying than those discussed in previous sections of the book, they are just as harmful. "Dirty Work" showcases the overall mistreatment, often allowed by shoddy laws, blind eyes, and corporate greed that is the standard in so many jobs in the United States. This book is really powerful and should open up many discussions about how we can create a healthier, sustainable environment for all workers.
August 20, 2021
To say this powerful book is eye opening is such an understatement. Author Eyal Press has put together a comprehensive collection of illustrative evidence that America runs on "dirty work" and moral inequity. From prisons, drone warfare, meat and poultry plants and farms and hotel housekeeping, to offshore drilling, so much of what virtuous consumers think they aren't abiding, they are actually complicit in sustaining. Released today, this research encompasses the historical and the up to date. Several subjects include COVID-19 impact.
Floggings, beheadings and hangings have been outlawed, as elites came to regard them as repellent, uncivilized... finding execution by lethal injection much tidier. And caging inmates (mainly black and mentally infirm) in hidden, segregated "isolation units," limiting medical care, clean linens, and access to food and water proves profitable. Meanwhile prison guards are made to feel devalued, so embarrassed about what they do for a living that they avoid talking about it. Workers killed on the Deepwater Horizon got less attention than images of wildlife covered in oil. The cheapness of American meat masks an array of hidden costs to the environment, to public health, to living animals, and to the industry's "dirty" workers. Virtuous consumption creates a virtue divide that all too often mirrors class divide. As political correctness ramps up, the obfuscation of suffering and greed intensifies. Virtue correlates with privilege.
Floggings, beheadings and hangings have been outlawed, as elites came to regard them as repellent, uncivilized... finding execution by lethal injection much tidier. And caging inmates (mainly black and mentally infirm) in hidden, segregated "isolation units," limiting medical care, clean linens, and access to food and water proves profitable. Meanwhile prison guards are made to feel devalued, so embarrassed about what they do for a living that they avoid talking about it. Workers killed on the Deepwater Horizon got less attention than images of wildlife covered in oil. The cheapness of American meat masks an array of hidden costs to the environment, to public health, to living animals, and to the industry's "dirty" workers. Virtuous consumption creates a virtue divide that all too often mirrors class divide. As political correctness ramps up, the obfuscation of suffering and greed intensifies. Virtue correlates with privilege.
January 8, 2022
Well researched, precise, heartbreaking.
I appreciate the broad range of topics.
I appreciate the broad range of topics.
did-not-finish
March 25, 2023DNF at 26%. This is sooo heavy. But some good stuff in there. But depressing.
January 16, 2022
"Pinning the blame for dirty work solely on the people tasked with carrying it out can be a useful way to obscure the power dynamics and the layers of complicity that perpetuate their conduct."
Dirty Work is a well needed look into the jobs society NEEDS fulfilled in order to function properly - but where workers are negatively impacted by public opinions on the roles and dehumanised the the point where animal deaths are often mentioned in lawsuits over human lives lost as it garners more empathy from the public and jury. Workers, often those who are forced into the roles, become scapegoats when the nature of their role is revealed and employees higher up can remain untarnished by the system they put in place.
"But who bears more responsibility for this cruelty; the workers who shock and kill the animals (and whom some PETA activists have advocated charging with criminal felonies), or the consumers who eat meat without ever thinking of the costs?"
The book takes a look at a fantastic variety of 'dirty' roles, including meat processing factories, prisons, chemical factories etc. It highlights the role the public play in increasing demand for the end product these roles produce and a surface level explanation of why 'locavores' are flawed. Locavores carry out "virtuous consumption", purchasing items that align with their values, but the primary focus is on their own diets and animals involved, not stretching as far as labour regulations for the workers. Animal welfare is prized over human welfare, hence why we see 'free range' growing, but salaries decreasing.
The reflection is crucial for understanding true changes needed in society. The book is US-centric but useful for readers from all countries and take into consideration the history of scapegoating, including of the black and Jewish communities.
There is a chapter on the US army but I neither read it nor included it in my reviewing score.
Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc.
Dirty Work is a well needed look into the jobs society NEEDS fulfilled in order to function properly - but where workers are negatively impacted by public opinions on the roles and dehumanised the the point where animal deaths are often mentioned in lawsuits over human lives lost as it garners more empathy from the public and jury. Workers, often those who are forced into the roles, become scapegoats when the nature of their role is revealed and employees higher up can remain untarnished by the system they put in place.
"But who bears more responsibility for this cruelty; the workers who shock and kill the animals (and whom some PETA activists have advocated charging with criminal felonies), or the consumers who eat meat without ever thinking of the costs?"
The book takes a look at a fantastic variety of 'dirty' roles, including meat processing factories, prisons, chemical factories etc. It highlights the role the public play in increasing demand for the end product these roles produce and a surface level explanation of why 'locavores' are flawed. Locavores carry out "virtuous consumption", purchasing items that align with their values, but the primary focus is on their own diets and animals involved, not stretching as far as labour regulations for the workers. Animal welfare is prized over human welfare, hence why we see 'free range' growing, but salaries decreasing.
The reflection is crucial for understanding true changes needed in society. The book is US-centric but useful for readers from all countries and take into consideration the history of scapegoating, including of the black and Jewish communities.
There is a chapter on the US army but I neither read it nor included it in my reviewing score.
Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc.
April 11, 2025
Content: 5 stars. Execution: 4.5 stars.
Overall, this book asks the very important question of 'who should carry the moral burden of dirty work? who is currently carrying that burden, and is it deserved? how did we get here?'. A book that made me look inward, recognize my own privilege and ignorance, and, simply put, a book that I think everyone should read.
In more detail, this book examines 'dirty work' in three main sections: people who work in prisons, people who surveil drone strikes, and slaughterhouse workers. These three sections were incredibly well researched (lots of policy talk), reflective, and showed a lot of vulnerability from the people involved with creating this book. The last section lost me for a little bit, it seemed a bit more disorganized and focused (in less depth) on oil rig workers, as well as people who work for big companies like Google and Facebook. While during the conclusion i understood the point Press was trying to make including these stories, I was a bit confused as a reader for a chapter or two.
Overall, this book asks the very important question of 'who should carry the moral burden of dirty work? who is currently carrying that burden, and is it deserved? how did we get here?'. A book that made me look inward, recognize my own privilege and ignorance, and, simply put, a book that I think everyone should read.
In more detail, this book examines 'dirty work' in three main sections: people who work in prisons, people who surveil drone strikes, and slaughterhouse workers. These three sections were incredibly well researched (lots of policy talk), reflective, and showed a lot of vulnerability from the people involved with creating this book. The last section lost me for a little bit, it seemed a bit more disorganized and focused (in less depth) on oil rig workers, as well as people who work for big companies like Google and Facebook. While during the conclusion i understood the point Press was trying to make including these stories, I was a bit confused as a reader for a chapter or two.
December 5, 2021
Quick impressions: Interesting as the book can be at times, it can also be seriously depressing and even may make you angry at times. In some cases, the systemic corruption is so bad that readers may feel pretty hopeless. As interesting as I was finding it, I just cannot handle reading this during the Hard Times we are in, so I am dropping it and moving on. In addition, some of these stories, such as the slaughterhouses, have been highlighted in articles here and there, so to be honest, I did not feel like going through that again.
June 7, 2022
The author examines the perils in performing certain jobs, specifically the shame, stigma, and moral injury workers face as guards in our prisons, drone pilots in the military, oil rig workers, and line workers on the kill floors of industrial slaughterhouses. Dirty work, in this context, is defined as work that causes harm to people or animals and the environment, and that most of society views as dirty and morally compromised. Much of the book is taken from the New York Times journalist's interviews with these workers. From the book's introduction, "An invisible contract governs dirty work...the terms of which ensure that those who tolerate and benefit from it don't have to know too much about it."
March 28, 2025
I will concede I initially expected this to be a soy liberal diatribe about the world's imperfections. In truth, it entails a very human look at the massive flaws in economic delivery systems, which impact not just one class, but the planet eternal. The author should be especially commended for bringing up the role of cheap migrant labor in dumbing down wages and leading to a disposability perception directed at those working in certain fields.
March 26, 2022
This book is outstanding and timely. The COVID pandemic brought brief attention to essential workers, including those who work in environements such as slaughter houses and prisons that most Americans would prefer to not think about. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press introduces us to some of the individuals whose work causes harm to other people, non-human animals, or the environment but is nonetheless essential to our country. In addition to prison guards and meat processors, the reader is introduced to military drone operators, oil rig workers, and Google employees who work on projects that demonstrate why Google removed "Don't be evil" from its corporate code of conduct.
Rather than focus on the harm done by dirty work (there are plenty of books for that), Press writes with compassion about the harm the work inflicts on those who do it, and how it affects those around them.
Essential reading for anyone interested in inequality and the impact of the consumer.
Rather than focus on the harm done by dirty work (there are plenty of books for that), Press writes with compassion about the harm the work inflicts on those who do it, and how it affects those around them.
Essential reading for anyone interested in inequality and the impact of the consumer.
January 11, 2025
Definitely very interesting, though sometimes a bit hard to read - as the book acknowledges, it's hard to have sympathy with some of the workers in the industries covered, in particular the military industrial complex. But of course that's the book's point - it's a systemic issue, one we too often sweep aside.
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