DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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Capital sins
Journalist James Bloodworth is shocked while working clandestinely to see that 21st century Britain employment practices have regressed to the level of 19th century inhumanity and abuse
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-wage Britain
by James Bloodworth
(Atlantic Books, £12.99)
Don’t be put off by the bizarre endorsements from Blairite MPs, Tory journalists and Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Hired is a devasting exposé of the extent to which capitalism is ruining lives and communities in Britain.
James Bloodworth blends reportage, statistics and socio-political analysis to assess the impact of exploitative employment. His case studies of precarious and poorly paid work in four commercial sectors and four UK regions, are moving, but the book’s strength is its readiness to examine personal experience in relation to class and an economy based on the notion that people are disposable.
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ALEX HALL is fascinated by a lucid and historically convincing account of how rent has dominated capitalist economies from feudalism to modernity
MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes, with reservations, a scholarly addition to the unfinished business of understanding how capital works on a world scale
