The full list of the 2023 Noteworthy Books are including here, including the William G. Bowen and Richard A. Lester book prize winners.
Title: Exposing Pay: Pay Transparency and What It Means for Employees, Employers, and Public Policy
Author: Branberger, Peter
Publisher: New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Title: Work And The Social Safety Net: Labor Activation in Europe and the United States
Authors: Besharov, Douglas J.; Call, Douglas M.
Publisher: New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Title: Metrics That Matter: Counting What's Really Important to College Students
Authors: Bleemer, Zachary; Mukul, Kumar; Mehta, Aashish; Muellereile, Chris; Newfield Christopher
Publisher: Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press
Title: Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America
Author: Canaday, Margot
Publisher: Princeton New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Title: Disturbing Development in the Jim Crow South
Author: Domosh, Mona
Publisher: Athens: The University of Georgia Press
2023 Richard A. Lester Book Award Winner
Title: The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America
Authors: Edin, Kathryn J.; Shaefer, H, Luke; Nelson, Timothy J.
Publisher: New York: Mariner Book
The authors of “The Injustice of Place” have developed an Index of Deep Disadvantage that goes beyond income measures to examine constraints on intergenerational mobility and health factors that contribute to poverty. The Index calls attention to three rural regions in the United States – Appalachia (defined as West Virginia, western Virginia, Easter Kentucky, Tennessee, west North Carolina, northern Georgia), the Cotton Belt (defined as eastern Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana), and South Texas – that have been deeply impacted by local government corruption, unequal schooling, systemic racism, proliferation of violence, and a collapse in social infrastructure. The authors and their research team personally visited three-fourths of the 200 places their data identified as disadvantaged to conduct ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with families and community leaders. In addition to the first-person accounts, the authors read various government reports and notable historical sociological field research. The Index developed in this research challenges our understanding of the multifaceted and compounded issues of poverty in America.
Members of the Section noted: “This analysis is an important complement to work in labor economics that deepens our understanding of how geographic labor market disadvantage is related to poverty and income inequality.”
Title: Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and the Making of a White Working Class
Author: Fraser, Max
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Title: Orange-Collar Labor: Work and Inequality In Prison
Author: Gibson-Light, Michael
Publisher: New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2023 William G. Bowen Winner
Title: Ours Was The Shining Future
Author: Leonhardt, David
Publisher: New York, NY Penguin Random House
This book examines the modern American economy through the dichotomy of capitalism that predominantly rewards a privileged few in the shadow of promises of prosperity for most. Reflecting on the economic history from the Great Depression through the Great Stagnation, Leonhardt searches for an answer to what happened to the American Dream. Leonhardt analyzes decades of data on income distribution and reports the effect of increased wages among union members on the labor market as well as the findings that income mobility continues to rise for second generation immigrants to conclude that the American dream is still possible.
Members of the Section noted: “This work contributes an important perspective on how economics and politics have interacted to restrict the labor market opportunities and place in the income distribution of less advantaged workers over the past half century.”
Title: Moving The Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do For The Poor
Authors: Newman, Katherine S., Jacobs, Elizabeth S.
Publisher: Oakland, California: University of California Press
Title: Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working Class Voters Are Turning Away From The Democratic Party
Authors: Newman, Lainey; Skocpol, Theda
Publisher: New York: Columbia University Press
Title: The UAW'S Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers At Foreign-owned Vehicle Plants
Author: Silvia, Stephen J.
Publisher: Ithaca: ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press
Title: Worn Out: How Retailers Surveil and Exploit Workers in the Digital Age and How Workers are Fighting Back
Author: Van Oort, Madison
Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press