John Bowe Marry Me!

Gig, one of my favorite books of all time needs to be explained more thoroughly. Each chapter reviews the life of a single person and what they do for a living- from an adhesive manufacturer, to a walmart greeter, to a meat packer, to a UPS man, to a farmhand.... so on and so forth. It was one of those unforgettable reads that I couldn't help but reference in every conversation and think about again and again and again.


I couldn't possibly capture the book so of course I just stole the words of others:

“The accounts are wonderfully revealing, with gritty and almost shockingly honest detail. For all their variety, they weave a cohesive, passion-filled story of what people bring to their work. It's an addictive read.”
-- Harvard Business Review's Best Business Books of 2000

“Keen, disturbing, and deeply felt . . . the stories in Gig deliver a more rousing political wallop than those in Working . . . remarkable and strangely moving.”
-- Susan Faludi, The Village Voice


sidenote: John Bowe aka the editor of GIG came to lecture at my school last year and I of course went to wallow in his awesomeness. I bought his new book Nobodies many many dollars overpriced minutes before the booksigning that followed the lecture. I finally got to meet him and as I shook his hand violently I tried to explain how much I LOVED Gig and was so excited to read his new book-- I pretty much professed my undying love for him. All John did was smile his sweet smile and sign "Hope you enjoy this one half as much as you did Gig -John Bowe"... that sly lil fox

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Nobodies was another spectacular one ... that in the ended scared the shit out of me. It's about modern day slavery... not in Cambodia or Southwest Asia as one would expect but right under our eyes in the great USA. I don't even mean the figurative slavery that man people are under but the kind where you're forced to labor and killed if you leave...

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Most Americans are shocked to discover that slavery still exists in the United States. Yet 145 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the CIA estimates that 14,500 to17,000 foreigners are “trafficked” annually into the United States, threatened with violence, and forced to work against their will. Modern people unanimously agree that slavery is abhorrent. How, then, can it be making a reappearance on American soil?

Award-winning journalist John Bowe examines how outsourcing, subcontracting, immigration fraud, and the relentless pursuit of “everyday low prices” have created an opportunity for modern slavery to regain a toehold in the American economy. Bowe uses thorough and often dangerous research, exclusive interviews, eyewitness accounts, and rigorous economic analysis to examine three illegal workplaces where employees are literally or virtually enslaved. From rural Florida to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the U.S. commonwealth of Saipan in the Western Pacific, he documents coercive and forced labor situations that benefit us all, as consumers and stockholders, fattening the profits of dozens of American food and clothing chains, including Wal-Mart, Kroger, McDonald’s, Burger King, PepsiCo, Del Monte, Gap, Target, JCPenney, J. Crew, Polo Ralph Lauren, and others.

In this eye-opening book, set against the everyday American landscape of shopping malls, outlet stores, and Happy Meals, Bowe reveals how humankind’s darker urges remain alive and well, lingering in the background of every transaction–and what we can do to overcome them.


The point of this entry: John Bowe is the man