Janesville is a small town where the oldest General Motors plant in America was located. On December 23, 2008, two days before Christmas, it closed, and nine thousand people lost the only source of income.
Pulitzer Prize winner Amy Goldstein, speaking through the eyes of workers, bankers, and politicians, explains how an industrial town survived when its main plant shut down, what ties and divides people in an era of economic shocks, and why in the 21st century a thriving working class is impossible.