Janesville: An American Story

Author: Amy Goldstein

Publisher: Simon and Schuster 2017

Amy Goldstein’s book is the worthy winner of the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey business book of the year award. It tells the story of the Wisconsin city of Janesville after General Motors, the largest employer, shuttered their assembly plant in 2008. The book traces the lives of the workers affected by the decision and how local politicians, unions and companies responded to the events.

At the heart of the book are the tales of adversity and hardship suffered by the Whiteaker, Wopat and Vaughn families as they sought to adapt to the loss of well-paid GM jobs at $28/hour. The GM plant never re-opened, despite an eight and a half decade presence in the city, losing 25% of its factory jobs in the process. By the end of 2015 just 9,500 factory jobs remained in the area down 46% from 1996.

The book is a compelling read and is similar in style to the great work of Martha Gellhorn in the 1930’s. She travelled across depression America as a field investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and reported to Harry Hopkins and President Franklin D. Roosevelt on conditions on the ground.

Goldstein’s writing is non-judgemental and relates the detail of Janesville family and community life as its citizens strive to re-build their lives from the wreckage of a big plant closure.

Janesville went Republican in 2016 for the first time in 32 years and now has an unemployment rate of below 4% - the lowest this century. The book is ultimately about people picking themselves up from the floor and starting again whilst politicians, like Paul Ryan, Leader of the House, who grew up in the area dither and seem too distracted by Washington and their own careers to really care.

Reviewer: Anthony Garnett, November 2017.