Amy GoldsteinBesprekingen

What is included in the book is interesting and well done, but what is missing is glaring. The author's failure to ever mention, let alone consider, race is ridiculous and makes me question her reliability as a narrator.

A sobering look at the corporate hierarchy and how small we are compared to the powers of industry. Anyone who has ever been laid off can appreciate the harm not just to the workers, but to the entire community. Stories about the individuals who fought for their jobs show the toll these decisions made on people's health and family lives. Especially sad is the experience of employees who chose to commute to other states and return home once a week.

It was a town that was centered around one large production plant supported by other companies that supplied it, then one day the plant closed, and the town changed. Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein shows how the closing of a General Motors assembly plant affected one small Wisconsin town over five years as those laid off, their families, and others in the community.

Goldstein followed three families affected by the closing of the GM plant either directly or a supplier leaving town once the plant was gone as well as various individuals in the town including the town’s most famous resident, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Over the course of almost 300 pages people must deal with finding a new job whether they went back to school to retain or not, some must make decisions on if they want to continue to work for GM but states away and if so to commute or leave Janesville, children learn to help out their parents with multiple jobs with the unintended consequence of reducing state aid available to the family because policy changes and budget cuts by the new governor because their household income is too high, and a once close knit community is divided between the haves and have nots. As with all things dealing with real life, it’s not pretty, especially as everyone written about must deal with the emotional and mental affects of dealing with something they’d never thought about before.

Janesville: An American Story is a look at one section of the Midwest Rust Belt that have been devastated by economic factors out of their control and how a town tried to respond. Amy Goldstein is an excellent job showing a cross-section of the affected community and how they dealt with the fallout of a town’s largest employer closing.½

This didn't turn out to be what I was expecting. From the jacket: "This is the story of what happens to an industrial town in the American heartland when its factory stills - but it's not the familiar tale." Actually, it rather did turn out to be the "familiar tale." I was expecting much more big-picture information about different entities remaking Janesville. And I applaud Goldstein for giving us rather intimate pictures of key individuals and the varying ways their lives changed, but I feel like the conclusions chapter was eliminated from the book. The only tidbit that matched my expectation was the description of how job retraining really doesn't (or didn't in this case) help move unemployed into new jobs. If you enjoy reading about individuals and their stories, you will enjoy this book. If, like me, you want more analysis, you'll have to keep searching.

Thoroughly researched and well told, this story of Janesville after the closure of the GM plant holding up much of the town's middle class is interesting, but in its desire to be told in an objective, nonpartisan way, it stops short of really exploring the "why" behind this downfall. Definitely still worth the read for its look at labor in the midwest and the struggles of factory economy workers.

A fascinating, detailed, wise accounting about what Janesville did when the GM plant and suppliers closed, a disaster for the economy and livelihoods of most residents. But I just couldn't keep reading when Paul Ryan came up -- the current Ryan vs (the appearance of) the former Ryan was just too disgusting. I can't help but think of the Ryan who MISREAD an article about a waitress saying her extra $1.50 (purportedly because of tax cut) would help her "cover her Costco annual fee." She was actually pointing out how ironic -- criminal? -- it was that corporations got the lion's share -- which they are investing in buying back their shares, not in increased wages or "bonuses" (i.e. crumbs). So yea -- a great book, but I'm just too disgusted to take "former Ryan" seriously as a public servant.

This is a well researched and extremely readable book about life in Janesville, Wisconsin, from 2008 through 2013, in the years following the closure of what had been the longest-running GM plant in the country. Literally generations of Janesville residents had made their livings from the plant and the many manufacturing companies that existed to supply parts to the cars built there. Interestingly, Janesville is also the hometown of Paul Ryan, Republican champion of governmental austerity and former Speaker of the House, a somewhat ironic fact given how solidly Democratic and pro-union the town has always been.

In the wake of the plant closing, the town's economy and lifestyle were devastated. Amy Goldstein skillfully and compassionately details the rising and pervasive unemployment, the lowering of standards of living of previously solidly middle-class families, to near the poverty line. School systems begin struggling, with students often going hungry and short on basic supplies, parents working two jobs just to try to get half of the income their union jobs had paid or driving four hours each way--generally staying away from home from Monday through Friday--to take jobs in still running plants. Goldstein also chronicles the efforts of local agencies to provide help in the form of job training and pro-active economic boosterism that tried to bring new corporations to town. In the midst of this came the election of Scott Walker-an avowed enemy of unions and government subsidies alike--as the state's governor. Soon the teachers' union was under attack from above, as well.

Goldstein's reporting method was, in addition to providing a comprehensive overview of events, to tell the town's story through the eyes of several families, people she clearly got to know well. In so doing, Goldstein was able to paint detailed portraits of the day to day lives and struggles of the people of Janesville during these extremely difficult years. She also chronicles, although not in great detail, the ways in which these events gradually created "two Janesvilles," as the interests of the still thriving upper class and the increasingly desperate middle and lower classes began to diverge more and more dramatically.

At one point, soon after Walker's election, he visits town and attends a banquet where a leader of the town's business community asks him in a one-on-one conversation, "Any chance we'll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions and become right-to-work? What can we do to help you?"

Walker's response is, "Oh, yeah. Well, we're going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is, we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer."

The business leader's response: "You're right on target."

A sad aspect into all of this is Goldstein's reporting, and documenting, that job retraining, as hard as people worked at making it available and as hard as people worked to receive it, in the end did little to improve the lives and incomes of most of the people who took such training.

This book does a lot to bring all of these issues--for those of us not living in areas like Janesville--into sharp, human-dimensioned focus. I suppose one of the drawbacks is that the viewpoint of many of her sources is somewhat self-selectiong. By that I mean that the blue collar families that moved into conservatism and eventually, perhaps, into Maga territory, were probably nowhere near as likely to agree to spend quality time with a reporter.

I feel strongly, however, that this book is an extremely valuable resource for understanding the economic and cultural issues besetting so much of American society today.

An in-depth look at how the loss of the GM plant in Janesville WI in 2008 affected the workers, the community, and the citizens. Told largely through the eyes of several people involved, whether they lost their jobs, taught in the schools, or were involved in community agencies, businesses, and politics. An important read.

I found this book very informative about the Steel Belt of the Mideast region and the slow, choking decline of what seemed like inevitable events. I know that sounds harsh but it seems (based on my understanding of this story) that there were red flags before the town of Janesville went under. Not to mention the recommendation to diversify the job market decades before GM (and all those “good” jobs) just left...

Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Life is NOT good when they go away. People need money. They have to work. What to do when the largest employer goes away? Sad story about a small town in Wisconsin. Author really lets us know the people in the story. And they are all sad stories.½

In 2008, General Motors closed its production plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, laying off thousands of people. Goldstein chronicles the direct impact, and less dramatic reverberations, this has on the community - from laid-off workers trying to pay the bills to teachers trying to help students suddenly dealing with uncertainty and stress at home.

The strength of this chronicle is the manageable but diverse group that Goldstein chooses to follow over the next five years. There is the bank president/community booster, the school social worker, several laid-off GMers who take different paths to forge a new life, the head of the local job resource center, and a few others. The group provides Goldstein a large canvas to trace various effects, but never becomes unwieldy. She also includes a few more meta themes in the book, particularly the widening political divide, and the election and recall effort of Governor Scott Walker is included, as are the fortunes of Janesville's native son, now-former Rep. Paul Ryan. But she always returns to the "regular" people and tells their stories with genuine care and empathy.

Janesville reminded me in some ways of The Unwinding by George Packer, particulary in the emphasis on the decline of the middle class and widening political and economic divisions in America. Both are worth reading, but Janesville is probably more accessible. It's an important read, and certainly a worthwhile one.

A dispassionate chronicle of how the dislocations of the capitalist economy wreak suffering on working people, reminiscent of George Packer's "The Great Unwinding" the book interleaves the stories of about a dozen indivuals and families from different walks of life. Despite some awkward prose, I was compelled by the unfolding drama of these lives and came away with what feels like a revealing photograph taken by a skilled photographer.

“The promise of Janesville has been the promise of America” – Senator Barack Obama, February 2008

The best business book of the year 2017 nominated by Financial Times and McKinsey. Amy Goldstein, the author of the book, has taken a deep dive into the community of Janesville, Wisconsin after General Motors has closed its oldest and the longest operating car factory in the United States. The factory and a whole city which made a huge contribution when, during World War II, it switched its assembly line from trucks to artillery shells.

In June 2008, when the announcement was made that General Motors is going to shut down production, the unemployment rate in the region was around 5.4%. In March 2009, a few months after the last of the jobs have disappeared, the unemployment rate has reached over 30%.

And this is a main backdrop of the history told in the book. A gripping and poignant story of what happens when the largest employer in a region shuts down its factory. The book documents what this huge recession has done on different layers of the local community, nevertheless, it’s not a story of a progressive erosion, but what one-off crisis has done.

In data, the largest proportion of the jobs has disappeared were in the manufacturing sector. A lot of the jobs, that were lost, were paid pretty well and did not require any higher education... (if you like to read my full review please visit my blog: https://leadersarereaders.blog/2018/11/15/janesville/)

Janesville is about the loss of GM car manufacturing jobs in this Wisconsin town and all the long term effects. Goldstein really does a good job of showing how General Motors let these people down and at the same time shows the rise of Scott Walker and super, labor busting conservatives. It was quite pleasant to have just finished it before Walker finally went down.

It is well written and fluid, and quite interesting to follow. I loved all the Woodman's references as it is one of my favorite stores ever. So much for the good things. On to the bad...

This book was tagged "economics" - that is utter bullshit. There is nothing about economics in this book. It is full of touchy-feely smarm.

It is "political science" as it says on the back, as Goldstein loves her Democrats and also loves dissing Republicans. One time she even makes an evil Republican out of someone because he DARED to trade emails with a really evil Republican. Eat shit, Amy!

So much so that she leaves out important information when it suits her! Every politician gets his label, democrat or republican. Every politician? No! Of course not! Because when it comes to the great early improvements for unions and workers, she calls the responsible politician, La Follette, simply "progressive". So, that makes you compare him to today's progressives and that means democart. But sure as fucking hell La Follette who helped the workers and the unions was a Republican! Quit those lies by omission, dumbface Amy!

It is not economics, because Amy has no clue about economics. She also has no clue about a lot of other things. When you write "computer IT" it makes you look stupid, Amy.½

This is the story of a town where for many years the major employer was General Motors. Following GM’s bankruptcy in 2009 the plant was one of a number that closed down, and this is the story of what happened afterwards. It makes tough reading in places but is sympathetically written and has some good outcomes. The author gives pretty short shrift to trickle down economics and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps advice from Republican politicians. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Janesville native son and Republican Vice Presidential candidate comes in for particular criticism. This was a worthy recommendation by Obama.

Sometimes, at the library, I’ll pick up a book at random based solely on the cover or the title and start reading it, ignoring the dust jacket and blurbs on the back. That’s what I did with Janesville—and I’m so glad I did. Were I asked, “Want to read a book about a town in Wisconsin that suffered after a GM plant closed?” I would have passed, not out of coldheartedness but because there are only so many hours in the day to read what grabs us.

This book is a great achievement for several reasons. The structure and interweaving narratives are handled skillfully—and by focusing on this array of people. Goldstein offer a mosaic of life after the plant’s closing. It’s also, in its style, an example of the clarity that Strunk and White urged on all of us.

What I found most remarkable, however, was the nearly-apolitical stance from which the tale is told. So much writing about economics and the nation’s current challenges is marked by finger-pointing. I never got a sense of that from this book. She doesn't point fingers; she gestures towards a display of people. I was surprised to read the blurbs on the back, which (I think falsely) characterize Janesville as a political anti-Trump screed. It's not, so if you're hoping to read something you can use as ammo against your cousin who's a Trump supporter, you'll be disappointed. The book is so much better than that.

(38) This reminded me why I don't read non-fiction. Its kinda, well . . . boring. That is not kind, I know. I am sure this was an exhaustive in-depth account of one proto-typical American towns fate after the collapse of the auto industry. The journalist author from the Washington Post followed the story of several families in the town who had a family member laid off from Union-backed factories. Despite retraining they could never find another job that had the benefits, the good middle-class pay, the pension of the now old-fashion factory work that built the heart of this country. What is left - the rich and the poor and not much much in between. Which is where we find ourselves today says the author.

I dunno. I guess it is modern social history - a sort of blue collar version of 'Hillbilly Elegy' except written by an outsider who tried valiantly not to reveal her own politics. But it just didn't grab me. I mean don't I read to escape the mundane? Now I am rethinking my whole zeal for non-fiction after this.

In a word, dull. Only for lovers of current America social policy/social history, politics, etc. Kudos to the author for not letting what I imagine was her disgust for smoking Newports, getting tattoos, and tawdry extra-marital affairs show through. . .

Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein has won many accolades, including 100 Notable Books in 2017 from the New York Times Book Review and the McKinsey Business Book of the Year.

Goldstein presents the story of a town and its people coping with the closing of the GM factory and how the town and families worked to reinvent themselves.

Janesville, WI was a tight-knit community with a successful history of factories beginning with cotton mills in the late 19th c, including Parker Pens and the GM auto assembly plant and the factories that supplied it.

The book covers five years, beginning in 2008 with Paul Ryan, a Janesville native, receiving the phone call from GM informing him of their decision to close the Janesville plant. Goldstein portrays the impact on employees and their families: the cascading job losses, the ineffectual retraining programs, the engulfing poverty, the men who take employment at plants in other states and see their families a few hours a week, teenagers working to help keep food on the table while preparing for college.

This is one of those non-fiction books that is engrossing while being informative, bringing readers into the struggles, successes, and failures of individual families. If you want to know about the people who have lost the American Dream, the impact of business and political decisions, and what programs 'work' and which have not delivered, then Janesville is for you.

Well worth the time. This is well written with short succinct chapters that focus on the results of the GM plant closing in Janesville, and follow several families within the community as they deal with the changes that this brings to this blue collar hometown of the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. I found it fascinating, yet very sad.
I would recommend this to people interested in the nitty-gritty lives of prior middle class families that are still struggling to regain their standard of living following the recent recession.

Fabulous non-fiction description of what happened when General Motors plant shut down in Janesville Wisc. to its inhabitants, both workers for GM and for downstream operations that depended on GM as well as Parker Pen. How the working and middle class can be reduced to poverty and what Scott Walker and Paul Ryan did to help or hurt (mostly the latter to the extent PR paid any attention at all). Named by WSJournal the "best business book of 2017" though it is not written as a business book.

I was disappointed by the first few chapters of this, and almost quit reading. For those of us who keep track of the state of the American economy, it is terribly repetitive. "Factory booming, everything good, factory failing, looking on bright side, factory goes bust, now what." However, once one gets past that, which is easily 1/3 of the book, it does start to get interesting and I couldn't wait to finish. Very nice reporting of longer-term effects of job & union loss, with platitudes examined, studied & followed up upon. Appreciated reading about the political shenanigans, the graphs & notes in the back. The author had her own surveys done to back up (or not) her anecdotal evidence, with some surprising (to me) results. Expected, yes, that 59% of people who lost their jobs (at American Motors) that got another job earned less at that new job. Expected they cut back on spending, on doctor visits, postponed education, marriage, pregnancy, missed mortgage payments, used credit cards more, etc. But Not expected that after 4 years, those who did *not* go back to school for retraining were *more* likely to have a job than those who did, 71.8% to 61.3%. Further, among workers whose wages were equal before the recession, laid off workers who retrained (went back to community college) & did get a job, were earning less than those who hadn't. And those who *finished school* ended up with a bigger drop in pay than those who dropped out along the way - partly because they had started with higher wages, true, but still ! Highly recommended, particularly for conservatives.½

A good, but depressing book, if one is from Janesville, Wisconsin. I come at this from a perspective of growing up in a Janesville family that never worked at the GM plant, it's feeder factories or Parker Pen. Janesville was always rolling in money and no one drove old vehicles. My family drove used cars, worked mostly in the building trades and education. We never saw $28 hr jobs. I have a hard time relating to the folks in this book. My initial thought when the plant closed, was "gee, now these guys can learn to live like the rest of us." Had a hard time relating to their lack of money, as my family never had it in the first place. GM workers lived a charmed life, from my perspective. Thus, I have had a bit, actually a ton of trouble empathizing. However, the book was well written. These folks, my community has ridden the storm. Every time I go back to Janesville there is more building, more jobs (albeit definitely not at GM standard pay) and Janesville is looking good and recovering. This book is about lives affected and about the slow recovery. This has happened in so many cities which relied on big industry. This book reflects the lives of so many who have had to face change and job loss. Buy, unlike many smaller cities, Janesville continues. To be sure, there are now parts of town that are not safe to walk in, the old parts of the town, where drugs, gangs and the perennial poor have taken hold. There are new upscale neighborhoods for those who in many cases never worked at GM in the first place, who had jobs outside factory work. The city is changing. This book doesn't totally reflect that change which was forced upon it. Nonetheless, this book reflects what happens when middle American cities don't wake up and diversify business until the very worst happens. All the retraining for jobs won't work, if there is no place to get these jobs without moving. I haven't lived in Janesville my entire adult life, as my job field made me look elsewhere fore work. This a required read for those who don't know what life is like in the Midwest rust belt, the area left behind by some politicians in the latest elections.