{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807846953?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0807846953","authors":["Deborah Fink"],"book_id":"9780807846957","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/cutting-into-the-meatpacking-line-9780807846957","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807846957.jpg?v=00f423f29ecbd9b7","description":"The nostalgic vision of a rural Midwest populated by independent family farmers hides the reality that rural wage labor has been integral to the region’s development, says Deborah Fink. Focusing on the porkpacking industry in Iowa, Fink investigates the experience of the rural working class and highlights its significance in shaping the state’s economic, political, and social contours. Fink draws both on interviews and on her own firsthand experience working on the production floor of a pork-processing plant. She weaves a fascinating account of the meatpacking industry’s history in Iowa — a history, she notes, that has been experienced differently by male and female, immigrant and native-born, white and black workers. Indeed, argues Fink, these differences are a key factor in the ongoing creation of the rural working class. Other writers have denounced the new meatpacking companies for their ruthless destruction of both workers and communities. Fink sustains this criticism, which she augments with a discussion of union action, but also goes beyond it. She looks within rural midwestern culture itself to examine the class, gender, and ethnic contradictions that allowed — indeed welcomed — the meatpacking industry’s development.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780807846957","publication_date":"19980406","publisher":"The University of North Carolina Press","slug":"cutting-into-the-meatpacking-line","subtitle":"Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest","title":"Cutting Into the Meatpacking Line"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Rural Life","score":0.7536,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Agribusiness","score":0.719,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Manufacturing Industry","score":0.6897,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Rural Life","score":0.7536,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Agribusiness","score":0.719,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Manufacturing Industry","score":0.6897,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026020","confidence_band":"high","label":"Rural Life","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Rural Life","score":0.7536,"slug":"rural-life"},{"label":"Agribusiness","score":0.719,"slug":"agribusiness"},{"label":"Manufacturing Industry","score":0.6897,"slug":"manufacturing-industry"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in rural labor history and Iowa’s porkpacking industry"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Alex Blanchette"],"book_id":"9781478008408","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478008408.jpg?v=e99ef3de30a94d81","score":0.7383,"title":"Porkopolis","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478008408"},{"authors":["Patrick J. Carr","Maria J. Kefalas"],"book_id":"9780807006146","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807006146.jpg?v=9af46adeac20bb91","score":0.6696,"title":"Hollowing Out the Middle","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807006146"},{"authors":["J. L. Anderson"],"book_id":"9781946684738","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781946684738.jpg?v=927590552e39222c","score":0.6589,"title":"Capitalist Pigs","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781946684738"},{"authors":["Brian Reisinger","Impact Audio"],"book_id":"9781510783898","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781510783898.jpg?v=c1458c35eef8db3a","score":0.6573,"title":"Land Rich, Cash Poor","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781510783898"},{"authors":["Gilles Stockton"],"book_id":"9780826366108","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780826366108.jpg?v=889c42645389dd90","score":0.6557,"title":"Feeding a Divided America","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780826366108"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:rural midwestern culture"],"label":"Culture","score":0.0449,"slug":"culture"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:studies in rural culture"],"label":"Studies","score":0.0285,"slug":"studies"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Rural working-class formation, Gender and ethnic divisions in labor, Union action.","Themes: Culture, Studies.","Reading lane: Rural Life and Agribusiness."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.9,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in rural labor history and Iowa’s porkpacking industry"],"themes":["Rural working-class formation","Gender and ethnic divisions in labor","Union action"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":14,"goodreads_ratings_count":34,"goodreads_reviews_count":1,"quality_score":0.8416}}