It's Book Time

"The Hammer" is published.

The hammer. (Photo: Getty)

I don’t have any kids, but I imagine that “writing a book” is right up there with “having a kid” in the pantheon of things that have the biggest gap between how much you care about them and how much the rest of the world cares about them. To you, the person who has written the book, its publication feels like an epic event—the triumphant culmination of years of work! A landmark spectacle! Everyone gather round and celebrate this historic moment in intellectual history! And to everyone else in the world, it feels like Tuesday. “Hey—congrats,” the rest of the world might say, and then go get lunch.

This is healthy. There is nothing worse than a writer who has been lured into the fantasy that he is important. Still, I am taking this self-indulgent break from my usual type of writing to let you know that today is publication day for my first book, “The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor.” It was reported in many places all around the country, and it is essentially about how the labor movement can save America, and why it’s failed to do that so far. I wrote a bit more about it here.

For months I have been urging you all to preorder it. If you did, you have my deepest and sincerest appreciation. If you didn’t, that’s okay—now you can regular-order it anywhere, or walk right into a book store and buy it. Nice. Want more info? Okay!

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Press

• The New York Times gave the book a nice review today.

• Vanity Fair’s Jack McCordick interviewed me about the book, Gawker, and the labor movement’s promise and failings.

• In The New Republic, Scott Stern wrote a perceptive piece about the book in the context of non-electoral political power.

• At Shepherd.com, I suggested five other great books to read about the labor movement.

• On the Volts podcast, I spoke to David Roberts about the state of unions in America.

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Tour

My book tour begins this week. Here are the upcoming stops this month:

• Thursday, February 15: Washington, DC—At Politics and Prose, Union Market location, 7 pm. In conversation with Sara Nelson.

• Saturday, February 17: Corvallis, OR—At the Book Bin, 2 pm. In conversation with Sara Nelson.

• Sunday, February 18: Portland, OR—At Powell’s City of Books, 3 pm. In conversation with Sara Nelson.

• Tuesday, February 20: Seattle, WA—At Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm. In conversation with Faye Guenther.

• Thursday, February 22: Columbus, OH—At Two Dollar Radio HQ, 8 pm. RSVP here.

• Tuesday, February 27: Brooklyn, NY— At Greenlight Bookstore, 7:30 pm. In conversation with Josh Gondelman.

There will be more stops in March and April as well. I’m still actively adding dates, so if you would like to discuss bringing me to your city to speak, email me.

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Writing a book taught me that writing a book is a long process that takes a lot of work by a lot of people. I now have a deep, unshakable respect for authors, and for the unseen teams of people at publishing houses who make books a reality. If you have ever written a book before—even if the “critics” didn’t say it was “good,” even if it wasn’t a “best seller”—I salute you. That’s a lot of words to write. I am not saying that sarcastically. You should be proud of yourself. I have also resolved to buy more new books in the future. If the journalism industry is going to collapse, we need to protect one last place.

If you read this book, I thank you. If you support the labor movement, I thank you. If you would like to unionize your own workplace, reach out to EWOC. Sorry for today’s navel-gazing post. I may publish here less often over the next few weeks, but soon we will return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Fight the power in 2024.