Sleeping Giant:
How the New Working Class Will Transform America
by Tamara Draut
HD8072.5 .D73 2016
New Arrivals, 2nd floor
Tamara Draut’s latest work outlines the evolution of working class Americans over the past 50 years. While the core of america’s middle class that emerged in the 1950s was white and associated with manufacturing jobs, the working class in 2016 looks much different. Today’s middle class workers are increasingly women and people of color. The jobs are also no longer manufacturing jobs or in steel mills. Jobs are now in the service sector like fast food workers, nannies, janitors, and transportation drivers. While covering the evolution of the working class, Draut also goes deeper by outlining what these workers want and are fighting for in the workplaces. Issues such as stronger union protections and the #FightFor15 are discussed in tandem through the work. Sleeping Giant is as much a history of the working class as it is a history of America’s growing diverse population.
If you are interested in this book, you may consider this interview with the author discussing the book.
