Still Broke

Reviews

“Rick Wartzman proves, once again, why he is America’s most compelling historian of corporate culture. Still Broke is fair-minded, exacting, and brutally clear that achieving humane wages for frontline workers will take more than good intentions. This should be required reading for every CEO, union leader, and politician in America.”—Evan Osnos, staff writer, New Yorker, and author of Wildland “Still Broke is an important, comprehensive, supremely balanced study of how Walmart treats its workers. Despite a close and cooperative relationship with Walmart, Wartzman pulls no punches in his efforts to pass judgment on his corporate subject’s incomplete efforts to do right by its employees. It’s totally absorbing.”—Adam Lashinsky, author of Wild Ride “With nuance and unparalleled access, Wartzman thoughtfully dissects the ‘corporate Rashomon’ that is Walmart. Still Broke is a fast-paced narrative that offers essential and sobering insights at a pivotal moment for industrial relations.”—Miriam Pawel, author of The Crusades of Cesar Chavez and The Union of Their Dreams “Still Broke is a 360-degree portrait of Walmart, a company that has for years been a synonym for ‘greed.’ Wartzman’s reporting on the corporation and its history is balanced and thorough. He concludes with well-reasoned solutions that might improve this case study in extreme capitalism, including raising the minimum wage higher than you might expect. The book is that rare title that is for corporate consultants and community organizers.”—Alissa Quart, executive director, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and author of Squeezed “Still Broke is a look behind the curtain at the inner workings of one of the world’s most controversial corporations. With thorough and excellent reporting and research, Wartzman delivers a portrait of Walmart that contains a number of surprises. Still, anyone who reads through to the book’s stunning final chapter will know that Wartzman doesn’t hold back. He understands exactly what’s ailing this country.”—Michael Tomasky, editor, the New Republic, and author of The Middle Out “Walmart, in Wartzman’s fascinating account, is not the caricature of evildoing popular on the left side of Twitter. Yet Still Broke returns us to the most fundamental question about America’s value proposition, built around the value of a good hour’s work. If even corporations like Walmart, which seems to have bought into its broader responsibilities toward society, cannot find it in their interest to provide a decent living to the workers who toil for them, should they be left to set the rules?”—Eduardo Porter, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion, and former Economic Scene columnist, the New York Times “Wartzman’s investigation of the company in all its complexity is thoroughly researched, and he deftly and meaningfully connects the issue of chronically low wages at Walmart to a larger undervaluation of the labor of millions of Americans…A well-written account of a corporate American juggernaut and its implications for society as a whole.”—Kirkus Expand reviews