Description

A compelling investigation into the phenomenon of dirty work – labour that society considers essential, but morally compromised.
A New Statesman Book of the Year
‘This book will prompt a public reckoning with inequality in work’ Michael J. Sandel
‘A scathing and thoughtful book about labor and principles’ Rebecca Solnit
‘A writer in the tradition of George Orwell and Martha Gellhorn’ Corey Robin
‘Confronts a series of deep and vexing moral questions… penetrating, astutely observed, beautifully written’ Patrick Radden Keefe

Guards who patrol the wards of America’s most violent and abusive prisons; undocumented immigrants who man the ‘kill floors’ of industrial slaughterhouses; drone operators who kill people from thousands of miles away.

These are the essential workers we prefer not to think about. Their morally dubious, often physically violent and dangerous activity sustains modern society yet is concealed from our gaze. It is work that falls disproportionately in deprived areas, on immigrants and people of colour, and entails a less familiar set of occupational hazards – stigma, shame and moral injury.

A striking, sophisticated and nuanced investigation, Dirty Work will change the way you think about society.

Publisher Review

'In this richly reported, disquieting book, Eyal Press highlights the stigmatizing, morally injurious work we ask some of the least advantaged members of society to perform in our name. Prison guards, slaughterhouse workers, and drone operators who carry out high-tech killings perform society's 'dirty work' out of public view. This book will prompt a public reckoning with inequality in work by revealing how we are all implicated in the dirty work we outsource to others' -- Michael J. Sandel 'Makes no easy judgments, but instead confronts a series of deep and vexing moral questions, and exposes the bonds of complicity that make this not just someone else's story - but one which implicates us all. A masterful, important book' -- Patrick Radden Keefe This is a scathing and thoughtful book about labor and principles - or, rather about when the former sabotages the latter, in the brutal industries that prop up American life... Though the moral injury impacts the workers first, it belongs to us all. Eyal Press brings this home in a series of powerful portraits of workers' -- Rebecca Solnit 'We want our conscience clean, and our budgets balanced. Enter Eyal Press, a writer in the tradition of George Orwell and Martha Gellhorn, who asks us to look at the dirty work that men and women do in our name' -- Corey Robin 'This deeply reported and eloquently argued account is a must-read' -- Publishers Weekly 'Essential reading for those interested in social justice issues' * Library Journal * 'Readers will be intrigued by the in-depth tales of the world of dirty work' * Booklist * [A] disturbing and necessary new book... It's a testament to [Press's] insight and vision that in spite of the ugliness to which he exposes us on almost every page, he still makes us want to set aside cynicism and pessimism and join him in finding ways to strengthen the moral bonds between us, however flawed we might be' * New York Times * 'A provocative book that will make readers more aware of terrible things done in their names' * Kirkus Reviews * 'Dirty Work is about weighty moral questions, but it's also about people, profiling dozens of workers and empathetically engaging with their crises of conscience [...] A rigorously argued, compassionately framed moral appeal that for some readers might serve as a wake-up call' * Shelf Awareness * Extraordinary... As exposes go, this one reaches beyond standard journalistic fare' -- Nancy Isenberg 'A civilisation scrubbed to be shiny requires sweeping the moral filth under the rug, as Eyal Press shows, though brilliant reporting and exquisite writing' * New Statesman, Books of the Year *