Dirty Work

Starred review from May 24, 2021
New Yorker contributor Press (Absolute Convictions) investigates in this engrossing and frequently enraging survey the conditions of Americans who perform essential jobs that are “morally compromised” and “hidden from view.” Contending that “the dirty work in America is not randomly distributed, falls disproportionately to people with fewer choices and opportunities,” Press interviews prison guards, military drone operators, oil rig workers, and slaughterhouse employees. In each case, he finds that the desire for lower “costs”—cheaper consumer prices, fewer American casualties in never-ending foreign wars, less government spending—has led to the exploitation of workers. And yet, Press argues, whenever abuses have been exposed, such as the crowded, unsanitary conditions that led to the rampant spread of Covid-19 among slaughterhouse workers, Americans have preferred to believe that “the key moral failures rested with a few reckless individuals... rather than with the exploitative system in which they worked.” Press’s lucid narrative is studded with gut-wrenching scenes, including a congressional hearing about the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in which politicians expressed more concern about the disaster’s impact on native bird populations than the deaths of 11 oil workers. This deeply reported and eloquently argued account is a must-read. Agent: Rebecca Nagel, the Wylie Agency.

June 15, 2021
A probing investigation of the morally ambiguous tasks that are done with our tacit consent. Press opens by recounting the story of sociologist Everett Hughes, who visited Germany soon after the end of World War II and encountered professionals who, while repudiating Nazism, also quietly noted that there was a "Jewish problem" that simply met the wrong solution. Hughes returned from the conversation with the idea that the Nazis were enabled by an "unconscious mandate" from German society. From this, Press builds a case that enfolds the "dirty work" conducted by our contemporary mandate--not the grimy work of mechanics and garbage collectors, but instead that of drone operators, prison guards and staff, and meat packers. All of these, writes the author, were considered "essential workers" during the pandemic, if low-paid ones and often without health care benefits, paid leave, and protection from the virus. In the case of the slaughterhouse workers--overwhelmingly members of ethnic minorities and often in the country illegally--the plants in which they labored were "ordered to stay open even as scores of laborers died and tens of thousands fell ill." Slaughterhouses--and prisons and drone facilities--are tucked away in mostly poor, mostly minority communities to keep them from troubling the consciences of the more privileged. Most of these people would rather be doing something else, of course. The prison workers Press profiles, for instance, are inclined to settle their own consciences via liberal self-medication of drugs and alcohol, and they suffer suicide rates far higher than those in the general population. All this dirty work, Press writes, is enabled by "passive democrats" who are perfectly content not to know about the unpleasant details of jobs done on their behalf. He closes his account, meaningfully, with a ceremony at a VA hospital in which soldiers confess their "moral transgressions" while civilians acknowledge, "We share responsibility with you." A provocative book that will make readers more aware of terrible things done in their names.

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Starred review from July 1, 2021

In this book, journalist Press (Beautiful Souls; Absolute Convictions) makes a comparison between the way Germans in the 1940s turned a blind eye to the Nazis' genocidal final solution and the way 21st-century Americans ignore the realities of morally compromised jobs that we ask less privileged people in our society to perform. Press's book is based on interviews with workers. He speaks with a U.S. prison worker about how the system worked against her when she witnessed abuse and wanted to intervene; talks with "joystick warriors" (people who operate remote drone strikes on foreign cities from the U.S.) about the mental trauma they experience when their work kills civilians; and interviews some of the many immigrants (some undocumented) working at meat processing plants about how cruelty to animals and unsafe conditions on the job can scar workers' minds and bodies. Press also compares today's dangerous, poorly paid cobalt-mining jobs to historical coal mining. In a contrasting account, he speaks with a tech worker who left Google when he became aware of questionable surveillance tactics the company was using. Press argues that this worker's education level and social class gave him choices unavailable to other people working "dirty" jobs. VERDICT Americans might ignore dirty work, Eyal concludes, but we are all complicit in it. Essential reading for those interested in social justice issues.--Caren Nichter, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2021
Journalist and author Press sheds light on the world of dirty work, work that causes substantial harm to other people, the world, or workers themselves. Press offers a wide variety of narratives starting with the prison guards who dole out horrendous abuse--and even kill--prisoners, behavior that was often excused and rewarded. Press expands the definition of dirty work, like counterterrorism jobs that require surveillance and remote killing by "joystick warriors" who press buttons but experience no consequences. The benefit technology provides saves soldiers' lives and keeps countries safe but cost those who commit the act their peace of mind. Press also covers the oil industry where near-death experiences are not unusual. In an interview with an offshore worker who survived an oil rig explosion, Press follows the man's journey dealing with injuries and PTSD. And, in the world of Silicon Valley, a Google worker unknowingly plays a part in the Chinese government's attempts to censor and monitor internet content and wrestles with the morality of his job. Readers will be intrigued by the in-depth tales of the world of dirty work.

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