"An award-winning historian illuminates the adversities and joys of the Black working class in America through a stunning narrative centered on her forebears. There have been countless books, articles, and televised reports in recent years about the almost mythic 'white working class,' a tide of commentary that has obscured the labor, and even the very existence, of entire groups of working people, including everyday Black workers. In this brilliant...

From debates around the high pressures of the corporate work environment to those around the present day labor movement, discussions about work prevail in popular thinking and the media. Do the wealthiest, most powerful corporations today reward their white-collar employees with outstanding vacation and family-leave packages or exploit their workforce by demanding unreasonable hours and unrealistic goals? And how do their blue-collar employees fare?...