After the financial implosion of 2008, the world sank
into the deepest recession since the 1930s. Hard Times
asks what this has done to two rich but vastly unequal
societies: Britain and the United States. Exploiting an
array of data and striking interviews with those
affected, Tom Clark documents how misadventures in the
towers of high finance cascaded down to the streets
below. Everything from PTA membership to sales of
playing cards dived during the Great Depression; this
compelling book traces the Great Recession's path
through our own times, uncovering a drop in life
satisfaction, frayed community connections and changing
patterns of suicide. In every case, the toll is greater
in poor neighbourhoods, due not only to unemployment,
but also to the precarious, unreliable jobs
proliferating in the recovery. As austerity redoubles
the hardship, the book's new analysis suggests scarring
that will blight individual and family life for years to
come. Over a third of a century, the gap between rich
and poor has steadily widened; with the crisis, this
economic divide has deepened into a societal schism.
Public opinion has polarised in parallel, poisoning
politics, and leaving the victims of recession divided
and powerless. In more prosperous neighbourhoods the
slump might soon be forgotten, but this urgent,
authoritative book pulls the scales of complacency from
our eyes. It cannot be missed by anyone who yearns for a
healthier, happier and less divided tomorrow. |
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