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Nick Reding, Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town: This is a book about globalization and the collapse of economic security in small-town America, and I wanted it to be about twice as long. There were a bunch of fascinating stories—like that of the woman who masterminded the first great expansion of meth in the Midwest—that seemed summarized. Reding argues that meth is a perfect American drug because (at least early on) it allows people to work for days without sleep, so it fits into our ideals about enterprise. But at the same time meth rose with the disappearance of actual jobs—so how does that work? I wanted more—I guess I wanted him to be more than a journalist.
Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America: Brandt set out to write a book about cigarettes that he thought would be quick because so little was known about the industry’s internal workings. Then as part of one of the settlements millions of documents were released, and his plan changed. Brandt tracks the deliberate creation of demand via newly developed marketing techniques that are now standard and then the deliberate creation of controversy as evidence mounted about the dangers of cigarettes. The companies knew that their only hope was to generate uncertainty among the public, so they pursued a “teach the controversy” strategy while simultaneously maintaining that the choice to smoke was an individual, informed one, since the risks of cigarettes were well-known. Eventually these strategies conflicted, but fortunately the individual choice narrative succeeded in dominating, plus the industry was able to exercise so much political influence that regulation ended up protecting tobacco more than discouraging its consumption. The ending chapters are truly distressing, especially the parts about the US pressuring other countries to allow more tobacco imports, which leads to US marketing strategies and massive increases in smoking. It also turns out that tobacco has a relationship to that other source of evil, securitization—in the “global” settlement with the states, the states got promised big payouts and then securitized their interests, so now they lose money if people stop smoking.
Catherine L. Fisk, Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930: Good look at the change from individual to corporate control of innovation and creation, accomplished by changes in business practices and related changes in law. Most useful in demonstrating that the much-vaunted move from status to contract was not necessarily, as proponents often claimed, about expanding freedom; courts were entirely willing to imply terms in the contract that favored the employer and that were inconsistent with past practice. As employees often lacked bargaining power or even knowledge that they needed to bargain, this meant a substantial increase in vulnerability, connected to larger contradictions in the ideology of free labor.
As for which of the three doesn't fit: that's an exercise for the reader!
Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America: Brandt set out to write a book about cigarettes that he thought would be quick because so little was known about the industry’s internal workings. Then as part of one of the settlements millions of documents were released, and his plan changed. Brandt tracks the deliberate creation of demand via newly developed marketing techniques that are now standard and then the deliberate creation of controversy as evidence mounted about the dangers of cigarettes. The companies knew that their only hope was to generate uncertainty among the public, so they pursued a “teach the controversy” strategy while simultaneously maintaining that the choice to smoke was an individual, informed one, since the risks of cigarettes were well-known. Eventually these strategies conflicted, but fortunately the individual choice narrative succeeded in dominating, plus the industry was able to exercise so much political influence that regulation ended up protecting tobacco more than discouraging its consumption. The ending chapters are truly distressing, especially the parts about the US pressuring other countries to allow more tobacco imports, which leads to US marketing strategies and massive increases in smoking. It also turns out that tobacco has a relationship to that other source of evil, securitization—in the “global” settlement with the states, the states got promised big payouts and then securitized their interests, so now they lose money if people stop smoking.
Catherine L. Fisk, Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930: Good look at the change from individual to corporate control of innovation and creation, accomplished by changes in business practices and related changes in law. Most useful in demonstrating that the much-vaunted move from status to contract was not necessarily, as proponents often claimed, about expanding freedom; courts were entirely willing to imply terms in the contract that favored the employer and that were inconsistent with past practice. As employees often lacked bargaining power or even knowledge that they needed to bargain, this meant a substantial increase in vulnerability, connected to larger contradictions in the ideology of free labor.
As for which of the three doesn't fit: that's an exercise for the reader!
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The other two are about corporate control. They all sound like really interesting reads.
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Also, I don't know the term securitization, but I can guess from context, and it sounds like a phenomenally bad idea in this case...
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In other news: great music choice, fellow Bowie fan!