What is Janesville, Wisconsin, without its General Motors plant? Certainly not what it once was. Pulitzer Prize winner Amy Goldstein says the city—despite its intelligence and determination—has still not rebounded. Her new book, Janesville: An American Story, was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Business Insider. Guest host is Shannon Henry Kleiber, producer of To the Best of Our Knowledge.
In addition, it was the winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for narrative nonfiction, the Financial Times/McKinsey Best Business Book of the Year, and the 800-CEO-Read Business Book of the Year. And Barack Obama listed it as among his top 10 books of 2017.
How does a heartland city pick itself up after the oldest General Motors plant in the country is shuttered during the Great Recession of 2008?
Goldstein has been a staff writer for 30 years at The Washington Post, where much of her work has focused on social policy. Among her many awards, she shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She has been a fellow at Harvard University at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Janesville: An American Story is her first book. She lives in Washington, DC.
“A gripping story of psychological defeat and resilience” ~ Bob Woodward of The Washington Post
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ABOUT OUR GUEST HOST Shannon Henry Kleiber
