Working in the 21st Century

December 1, 2023
A colorful mosaic that spotlights our jobs, how we do them, and what they mean. Work takes up a large part of our lives, but the broad subject of making a living can be difficult to examine. In this attempt to make sense of employment, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Studs Terkel's seminal book on the subject, Working, Larson collects the experiences of 101 Americans who discuss their work and their opinions about their jobs. "I took a cue from Studs," writes Larson, "who chose to not include persons with access to significant forums for expressing their views--politicians, corporate heads, and pundits, for example." He covers an impressively wide range of occupations, including executives, hairstylists, nurses, administrators, entrepreneurs, and even funeral directors. Larson believes that massive upheavals in the idea of work are underway, driven by alienating technology, cultural changes, and economic stress. The author conducted many of the interviews during the pandemic, which gives the book a somewhat dated feel. Many contributors mention that they try to establish a connection with others through their work and that they want to believe they're somehow making the world a better place. Significantly, several people who had retired from their lifetime occupations later took up volunteer roles to occupy their time. Other interviewees, such as those who worked for Amazon, struggled to find real purpose in what they did and felt grinding pressure to meet performance targets. In the end, the book has the classic strengths and weaknesses of the oral history genre: breadth rather than depth, diversity rather than thematic consistency. The author presents a host of interesting stories, but the whole is no more than the sum of the parts. Larson's study of the modern workplace offers touching vignettes, but an overall message is hard to find.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2024
Bringing up to date the late Studs Terkel's much lauded Working, Larson (Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater, 2019) interviewed dozens of workers in diverse vocations from across the nation to ferret out what inspires them to keep plugging away. In the 50 years since, so much has changed. Three themes emerge. First, the rise of gig work, with its insecurities and lack of lifetime employment, has destabilized the future for so many. Second, the impact of COVID-19 shattered the practice of working closely with others on a daily basis and accelerated the work-from-home trend, and third, automation has profoundly shifted workers into delivery and other service modes. Occupations like teaching and health care, however, still predominantly demand face-to-face encounters. How does all this fit in with the American imperative to pursue happiness? In a closing section, Larson deals with workers in end-of-life services, such as hospice providers and funeral directors. Larson succeeds in his quest to discover how contemporary workers define themselves and their lives, and his subjects bring life to the masses of everyday workers.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 22, 2024
The American workplace reels from the Covid pandemic, climate change, bigotry, and more in this spirited interview collection inspired by Studs Terkel’s Working on its 50th anniversary. Historian Larson (Ensemble) features 101 conversations with “the people who are not often handed a microphone nor called into the spotlight” to get a sense of “what it is like to be you doing this work in these times.” A wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service describes the “massive, mega blazes” increasing in frequency because of climate change; a former Wisconsin dairy farmer recounts the economic hardship that led him to sell his cows; an ob-gyn in Illinois details the effects on her practice of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade; a Covid contact tracer in New York notes that she had to cut her “35-minute interview to a 15-minute interview because of the volume of cases”; and a teacher turned short-haul truck driver in South Carolina contends that “the worst day in trucking is better than the best day teaching.” Larson covers an impressive range of workers with oft-fascinating anecdotes. Taken all together, however, the voices tend to blend together. Best suited to being leafed through a few sections at a time, this is a comprehensive look at the challenges faced by today’s workers.