99% Perspiration
A New Working History of the American Way of Life

Quotes

“99% Perspiration...is more than a mere diagnosis. It’s also a far-reaching study of how and why national myths are propagated and a ground-level account of the way we live and work now. It is, as they say, a good read, wrung from troubling realities.”
—The Los Angeles Times

“Chandler’s breezy writing style makes the book an easy read with plenty of eye-popping statistics and gut-wrenching anecdotes. More importantly, 99% Perspiration will make readers question their own relationship to work, what their jobs mean to them, and why employment is so integral to our identity.”
—Book Page
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“An articulate critique of rags-to-riches mythology and government policies about labor in the United States.”
—Library Journal

“Work has always been a central part of the American character, with the idea that success comes from effort, persistence, and ingenuity. But Chandler, a journalist and an author, argues that much of this is a myth. Climbing the socioeconomic ladder has never been as easy or as common as its advocates claim, and in the past two decades it has become almost impossible…Work is simply not working—for many, if not most, Americans. Some new thinking is needed. A welcome call for a return to fairness and common sense.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"As Chandler travels across the United States – talking with laborers, pastors, teachers and policy makers – he offers a hopeful vision for restoring the lost American dream. He urges people to have more meaningful conversations, to think like citizens instead of individuals.”
—Smithsonian Magazine

“Adam Chandler’s 99% Perspiration is a wickedly smart and even hilarious takedown of the mythology of the American Dream. In an age of uncertainty and inequality, this is a necessary book.
—Derek Thompson, author of On Work and Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction

“99% Perspiration is a passionate look at America’s broken economic system and how it could be fixed. It is expansive in scope and empathetic toward its subjects – everyday American workers who deserve so much more. A timely, necessary read.”
—Sarah Kendzior, New York Times bestselling author of The View From Flyover Country

“An intriguing and intelligent look at work in the United States, Adam Chandler has brought his humor and grace to an array of issues from stagnating wages to the hustle economy to why so many American workers eat sad lunches at work (if they get a few moments to eat lunch at all). Chandler has an uncanny ability to present deep histories of inequality, paint absorbing contemporary portraits of workers and raise provocative questions about our cultural and social myths about working. An ode to anyone who has struggled to make ends meet, to find meaning from work, or to understand why their bosses are so mean, this book reminds us that another (work) world is possible!”
—Marcia Chatelain, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

“With relentless shoe-leather reporting, incisive analysis, and mordant humor, Adam Chandler has pierced the balloon of some very cherished myths about America's workplace exceptionalism.”
—Samuel G. Freedman, author of Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights