Care, Premilla Nadasen
Care, Premilla Nadasen
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Care
The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Author: Premilla Nadasen

Narrator: Sanya Simmons

Unabridged: 7 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/18/2025


Synopsis

Since the earliest days of the pandemic, care work has been thrust into the national spotlight. The notion of care seems simple enough. Care is about nurturing, feeding, nursing, assisting, and loving human beings. It is "the work that makes all other work possible." But as historian Premilla Nadasen argues, we have only begun to understand the massive role it plays in our lives and our economy.

Nadasen traces the rise of the care economy, from its roots in slavery, where there was no clear division between production and social reproduction, to the present care crisis, experienced acutely by more and more Americans. Today's care economy, Nadasen shows, is an institutionalized, hierarchical system in which some people's pain translates into other people's profit.

Yet this is also a story of resistance. Low-wage workers, immigrants, and women of color in movements from Wages for Housework and Welfare Rights to the Movement for Black Lives have continued to fight for and practice collective care. These groups help us envision how, given the challenges before us, we can create a caring world as part of a radical future.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Durakov on August 25, 2024

I liked this and especially appreciated the glimpse into welfare, domestic labor, and care organization happening in the US. The chapters on domestic labor and labor trafficking were very insightful and informative. The polemical points around social reproduction were also thought provoking and help......more

Goodreads review by Brooke on January 28, 2024

The last chapter "But Some of Us Are Brave" is my new roman empire.......more

Goodreads review by Shubh on March 28, 2024

I feel like this is truly one of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read. I’m super glad I read this right after reading Matthew Desmond’s Poverty in America, as the theory & examples presented in this book are further evidence that the suffering of poor people is completely preventable. The way......more

Goodreads review by Megan on February 20, 2025

This book was a lot more serious that I expected and I really liked it. The book dissects the care profession in respects to race, gender and where they fell in the timeline of life. I get the feeling from reading this book that the author recommends dismantling entire systems but I honestly can't s......more

Goodreads review by Merricat on September 22, 2024

Lots of very interesting reporting and marshalling of facts. Some of the structuring arguments seemed really weak to me. E.g., it seems like Nadasen is often writing against the claim that there's a looming crisis of care or social reproduction and that the untenably high cost of care (particularly......more