Private Government, Elizabeth Anderson
Private Government, Elizabeth Anderson
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Private Government
How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It)

Author: Elizabeth Anderson

Narrator: Lauren Pedersen

Unabridged: 5 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/06/2023


Synopsis

Why our workplaces are authoritarian private governments—and why we can't see it

One in four American workers says their workplace is a "dictatorship." Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for what they are—private governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives. Many employers minutely regulate workers' speech, clothing, and manners on the job, and employers often extend their authority to the off-duty lives of workers, who can be fired for their political speech, recreational activities, diet, and almost anything else employers care to govern. In this compelling book, Elizabeth Anderson examines why, despite all this, we continue to talk as if free markets make workers free, and she proposes a better way to think about the workplace, opening up space for discovering how workers can enjoy real freedom.

About Elizabeth Anderson

Elizabeth Anderson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of philosophy and women's studies at the University of Michigan. Her books include The Imperative of Integration.


Reviews

Goodreads review by ☘Misericordia☘ on June 13, 2021

Somebody doesn't like their employer and this book is the result of feeling it. Really feeling it! If one puts aside the jokes, there are too many faults with this book to list here. Therefore I'll try to list only the major grumbles. I'll start with the good thingy: 🎓 Yes, there are awful employers. 🎓......more

Goodreads review by Juliet on August 10, 2022

I think the basis of this book was interesting and challenges the idea that American workers are free, when in reality they are often controlled by the private government of their employer. As someone who has spent the last 30 or so years as a once hourly employee and now manager, I witnessed firsth......more

Goodreads review by Paul on May 23, 2017

In Private Government Elizabeth Anderson presents a compelling case that our political ideologies have been shaped by historical contingencies. Specifically, it made perfect sense for egalitarian reformers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to enthusiastically embrace free markets. State-ba......more

Goodreads review by Public on February 09, 2018

"Consider some facts about how employers today control their workers. Walmart prohibits employees from exchanging casual remarks while on duty, calling this 'time theft.' Apple inspects the personal belongings of their retail workers, who lose up to a half-hour of unpaid time every day as they wait......more

Goodreads review by Shaun on August 19, 2017

This is a deeply, simply radical book. As a philosopher, Anderson approaches her subject - why we submit ourselves to a 24/7 dictatorship of our bosses and why we don't even notice most of our lack of rights and power- from a fresh, historically-researched point of view. This is essential reading fo......more