Amy Goldstein on writing ‘Janesville’

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Business writing takes many forms. Reportage is rarely one of them.

Janesville
, Amy Goldstein’s account of an industrial US town in crisis, is an exception. Her book seeks to explain how the Great Recession of a decade ago affected ordinary people, by telling the story of the closure of the town’s General Motors plant through the eyes of its citizens.

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Amy joins us to talk about the process of reportage and the themes that emerge from the book, including the state of the white US working class.

Janesville is one of six books shortlisted for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year award. In this series, we talk to all six authors before the winner is announced on November 6. Catch up with previous episodes here.

Look out for next week’s podcast with Brian Merchant, author of The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone.