Resources

Poetry 

"'Downsizing' God Bless You,"   by Ernie Brill

Fiction

The following two short pieces are wonderful reading, and ideal for informal presentation in a classroom or community group setting:

Robert Sullivan’s "A Memo from Dad," (The New Yorker, March 25, 1996, p. 100) is a bittersweet and funny satire.

Eric Bogosian’s "Just Business," from The Essential Bogosian ( New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1994), pp. 214-216, is harsh and powerful.

Among a rash of novels about downsizing, Donald Westlake’s The Ax stands out (see a  review on this site). If your browser is equipped with the RealAudio plugin, you can listen to a recording of Terry Gross interviewing the author on Fresh Air at http://whyy.org/freshair/BOFA/BOFA19970725_144.ram   (it begins 30 minutes into the program).

Also see The Dinosaur Club by William Heffernan, a book that comes with a  website worth looking at: http://www.dinosaurclub.com/ .

Video

The now-vintage classic video on downsizing is Michael Moore’s Roger and Me, available in most video stores. Scheduled for release very soon is his The Big One, which takes Nike to the cleaners.

The theme of conflict between old and new, traditional blue-collar and professional/managerial workers is dealt with in a beautifully subtle way in the film Dadetown.

Another documentary video resources on the issue is Battle of the Titans, which primarily concerns globalization, but has some poignant footage of unemployed shoe workers burning cowboy boots.

Kevin Danaher gives a 90-minute lecture on "Globalization and the Downsizing of the American Dream" that is available from Global Exchange in San Francisco. You can order it by calling  (800) 497-1994.

We are hoping to provide clips from these and other sources on-line before too long.