Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America

This book explores the morally compromised work that society considers essential, such as drone pilots carrying out targeted assassinations, undocumented immigrants working in slaughterhouses, and guards in abusive prisons. 

Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of contemporary America, highlighting the psychological and emotional hardships they face, including stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to “essential workers,” but Dirty Work focuses on a less familiar set of occupational hazards that disproportionately affect low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color. It illuminates their moving and harrowing stories and examines the power structures that shape their lives, revealing fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of work and the hidden costs of inequality in America.

(This book may contain a sharpie mark on the top or bottom edge and may show mild signs of shelfwear.)