Ford Library

The big squeeze : tough times for the American worker by Steven Greenhouse. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

For MBA students, the news over the past decade has been good. Employment opportunities have increased. Executive salaries have risen sharply. Corporate profits have soared. But for millions of workers, the news has been bad. For many, wages have stagnated. Heath and pension benefits have been cut back. And job security has disappeared.

While the American economy, corporate profits and worker productivity grew robustly, the median income for nonelderly households remained flat. Worker productivity climbed 60% but the hourly wage increased only 1% after inflation. In the economic expansion, the size of the pie increased, but the worker did not get a bigger piece.

The Big Squeeze explains what has been happening in the workplace. Weaving personal stories of workers with economic facts and data, author Greenhouse, labor correspondent for the New York Times, creates a disturbing picture of the economic environment for workers.
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One of our Library users has shared a concern with the Library Staff over cell phone use in the Library.

Please be considerate of your fellow Library users, and follow the two simple guidelines below regarding cell phone use in the Library.

1. Set your cell phone to vibrate or silent mode.

2. If you get a call while in the Library, please take the call in:

• one of the copier rooms (located near the circulation desk or at the back of the Library)
• one of the Library restrooms
• in the hall outside the Library

Thanks for your consideration and cooperation!

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations… One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Penguin (2007).

After author Greg Mortenson failed in his attempt to climb to the summit of K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, he began his descent. He became lost, disoriented and dangerously ill but stumbled upon an impoverished Pakistani village named Korphe, where he stayed for seven weeks among the Balti people who looked after him. As he left, he promised to return and build a school for them. This is the story of his work to fulfill that promise, and of his success in building 50 other schools for girls in Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s poorest communities.

In this personal story about globalism, Mortenson portrays the lives of village elders, mujahideen and Taliban officials in this remote area of the world. He argues that the US must fight Islamic extremism in the region by collaborating to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, particularly for girls. It is also a story about a meaningful life created by one committed person, a mountain climber who became a humanitarian.

Also available in audiobook format at Ford Library.

© Reviewer: Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business. All rights reserved.