Product Description
There was a time when America’s working class was seen as the backbone of the American economy, having considerable political, economic, and moral authority. But the working class we have now has been marginalized, if not ignored, by politicians and pundits. This is changing, swiftly and dramatically.
Today’s working class is a sleeping giant. And as Tamara Draut makes abundantly clear, it is just now waking up to its untapped political power. Sleeping Giant is the first major examination of the new working class and the role it will play in our economic and political future. Blending moving individual narratives, historical background, and sophisticated analysis, Draut forcefully argues that this newly energized class is far along in the process of changing America for the better.
Draut examines the legacy of exclusion based on race and gender that contributes to the invisibility of the new working class, despite their entwinement in everyone’s day-to-day life. No longer confined to the assembly line, today’s working class watches our children and cares for our parents. They park our cars, screen our luggage, clean our offices, and cook and serve our meals. They are us.
Today’s working class is a sleeping giant. And as Tamara Draut makes abundantly clear, it is just now waking up to its untapped political power. Sleeping Giant is the first major examination of the new working class and the role it will play in our economic and political future. Blending moving individual narratives, historical background, and sophisticated analysis, Draut forcefully argues that this newly energized class is far along in the process of changing America for the better.
Draut examines the legacy of exclusion based on race and gender that contributes to the invisibility of the new working class, despite their entwinement in everyone’s day-to-day life. No longer confined to the assembly line, today’s working class watches our children and cares for our parents. They park our cars, screen our luggage, clean our offices, and cook and serve our meals. They are us.
Reviews/Praise
AN INCREDIBLY TIMELY AND IMPORTANT BOOK AS THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL RACE GETS INTO GEAR: The new working class truly has the potential to sway the race, and both parties will be competing for its vote (or maybe trying to suppress it...). AN AUTHOR WITH ROCK-SOLID CREDENTIALS AND A BULLY PULPIT: As the VP of Policy and Research at Demos, the country's leading progressive think tank, Tamara Draut has the resources to write the definitive book on the emergent working class and the platform to promote it to its natural audience. CONTINUES THE URGENT NATIONAL CONVERSATION BEGUN BY SUCH IMPORTANT (AND BESTSELLING) BOOKS AS GEORGE PACKER'S THE UNWINDING AND DAVID SHIPLER'S THE WORKING POOR: Readers of those books are this one's natural constituency. But Sleeping Giant brings the story up to the present--and offers hope as well. THE "SLEEPING GIANT" AKA THE 99% IS ALREADY AWAKENING--AND MAKING HEADLINES WITH HIGH-PROFILE CAMPAIGNS TO RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE FOR FAST-FOOD WORKERS AND WALMART WORKERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY: Tamara Draut's book will be riding an already cresting wave of highly coordinated and high-visibility activism.