Blue-collar books: hard to find, but here’s a few

One of the things that the faith and work movement could use more writing about is blue-collar work. We ran a series about it on MISSION:WORK a while ago, and the blog Oikonomia on our channel posts about it from time to time (see here and here).  We’ve been looking for books to recommend about it. Here’s a couple we’ve run into:

• Ironworking.com has a list on women in blue-collar trades.
• Mike Rose’s The Mind at Work argues for “the considerable cognitive demands of blue-collar and service work and what it takes to do such work well.”
• Here’s a list on Goodreads of everything from poetry to novels to plays to nonfiction, including the grand-daddy of all blue-collar books, Studs Terkel’s Working.
• Another classic is Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, which you can read more about here.
• Here’s an interview with several folks urging people to find careers in the trades, including one who wrote a job-hunting book called Blue-Collar and Proud of It.
• And, probably my personal favorite: Shop Class as Soulcraft.

Got any suggestions? Comment below!