Who hasn't wondered how automation has affected our daily lives? You go into McDonald's nowadays and usually there is not even a cashier anymore. This books explains the beginnings of the automation trend that we can now no longer escape. While it does have it's place it does seem like it is trying to continually push out the average worker.

I got this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fantastic book but I suppose not one for the average layman. The thesis statements were so interesting and transformed the way that I viewed automation and unions. The level of detail that followed after though, while important to the scholar and for maintaining academic rigor, kinda bored the detached observer (me). It was published by University of Illinois Press, so I should have known better.

Well worth a read for those invested in the field and those who have a paper on the topic, or else for those who are willing to skim some details to get to the juicy bits (and they are juicy).

For all the hype concerning automation in the workplace over the years, it appears that if anything the workers are worse off and the promises were pie in the sky. Amazon is a typical example where assembly lines are controlled by algorithms and unions are not permitted.
This is a sad indictment of free trade, consumerism, and capital flowing upwards and squeezing the worker even more. Profits over the last 60 decades have risen year after year while workers are still struggling to keep their heads above the water.
I had no joy in reading this part of history for it is a standout condemnation of the haves still controlling the have nots as it has been forever. Greed at its most nasty on the pretext that automation was the answer to betterment for all.