PanThe New York Times Book ReviewRajan says he is seeking \'the right balance between them so that society prospers.\' But he lacks the courage of his convictions. What begins as an incisive critique of how economists and policymakers abandoned community ends as a dismaying illustration of the problem ... threads dissolve in the hundreds of pages of vaguely sketched economic history that follow. While ably describing how both a growing market and a growing state have eroded the community’s relevance and vitality over time, Rajan gradually redefines the third pillar from \'communities whose members live in proximity\' to merely democracy or the \'voting public.\' An intrinsically valuable and varied local institution congeals into a homogeneous tool for ensuring that the market and state behave. When genuine community does make a return in the book’s section on prescriptions, Rajan sacrifices it willingly.
Ellen Ruppel Shell
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalThis is an unconventional book, providing a vantage point far removed from the economics-based analyses that tend to dominate discussion of the American labor market ... This observation is at once obvious and underappreciated ... Ms. Shell highlights the logical inconsistencies in discussions of the oft-lamented “skills gap” and the shortcomings of an education system ... Through it all, The Job remains ardently optimistic about the prospects for improving people’s working lives regardless of whatever economic changes may come. The book’s quirky examples are best understood not as a blueprint but rather as part of the author’s argument that certain principles held inviolable may deserve a second look ... Ms. Shell evinces an instinctive antipathy toward the business world, largely ignoring the employer perspective ... Good work, the author rightly notes, requires that \'someone is willing to pay for that work to get done\' ... Getting \'the job\' right demands understanding of, and concern for, their interests, too.
