A groundbreaking, urgent report from the front lines of "dirty
work"—the work that society considers essential but
morally compromised
Drone pilots who
carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man
the “kill floors” of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who
patrol the wards of the United States’ most violent and abusive
prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting
view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the
stories of people who perform society’s most ethically troubling
jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from
an array of morally questionable activities that other, less
privileged people perform in our name.
The COVID-19
pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to essential workers, and
to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and
slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines a less
familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional
hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These
burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented
immigrants, women, and people of color.
Illuminating the
moving, sometimes harrowing stories of the people doing society’s
dirty work, and incisively
examining the structures of power and complicity that shape their
lives, Press reveals fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of
work and the hidden costs of inequality in America.