Temp
The untold history of how insecurity became normal in American work.
Historian of Work and Capitalism
Why has work become insecure?
Every working person in the United States asks the same question: how secure is my job? Temp tracks how long-term investment in workers gave way to short-term returns, and how that shift reshaped everyday life.
Through the experiences of consultants and executives, temps and office workers, line workers and migrant laborers, the story goes deeper than apps and further back than downsizing.
Books
Borrow
A lively history of consumer debt and the cultural choices that made borrowing central to modern life.
Debtor Nation
How personal debt moved from the fringes of U.S. life to the center of the economy.
American Capitalism: A Reader
A guide to understanding how the United States became a leading economic power.
Shopping for Change
Essays on consumer activism and the real possibilities of political purchasing power.
About
Louis Hyman is a historian of work and business at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University where he is the Dorothy Ross Professor of Political Economy in History. He is also a member of the Data Science and AI Institute.
He is the author of books on debt and labor, a founding editor of Columbia Studies in the History of U.S. Capitalism, and director of the History of Capitalism Summer Camp.
Originally from Baltimore, he studied history and mathematics at Columbia University and earned a PhD in American history from Harvard University.
Selected Reviews of Temp
"A revealing study of the gig economy, which, though it seems new, has long antecedents."
Kirkus Reviews
"Thorough, thoughtful, and sympathetic ... this disquieting history of worker dispensability."
Publishers Weekly
"Succeeds as a synthesis of economics, sociology, and history by opting for good storytelling over jargon."
Booklist