Every year, between one and two million Americans work as interns. They famously shuttle coffee in a thousand newsrooms, congressional offices, and Hollywood studios, but they also deliver aid in Afghanistan, build the human genome, and pick up garbage. Ross Perlin's book is the first expose of the exploitative world of internships, and its hardcover publication precipitated a torrent of media coverage in the US and UK. In this witty, astonishing, and serious investigative work, Perlin profiles fellow interns, talks to academics and professionals about what unleashed this phenomenon, and explains why the intern boom is perverting workplace practices around the world. Insightful and humorous, INTERN NATION will transform the way we think about the culture of work.
Intern Nation
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'Perlin contends that most internships are illegal, according to the Fair Labor and Standards Act, stripping people who are employees in all but name of workers' rights.' --New Yorker
'A portrait of how white-collar work is changing - thought-provoking and at times jaw-dropping - almost a companion volume to Naomi Klein's celebrated 2000 expose of modern sweatshops, No Logo.' --Andy Beckett, Guardian
'A compelling investigation of a trend that threatens to destroy 'what's left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair compensation' - Full of restrained force and wit, this is a valuable book on a subject that demands attention.' Observer; 'This vigorous and persuasive book ... argues that the fundamental issue is the growing contingency of the global workforce.' Roger D. Hodge, Bookforum; 'A book that offers landmark coverage of its topic.' --Andrew Ross, London Review of Books.
'A portrait of how white-collar work is changing - thought-provoking and at times jaw-dropping - almost a companion volume to Naomi Klein's celebrated 2000 expose of modern sweatshops, No Logo.' --Andy Beckett, Guardian
'A compelling investigation of a trend that threatens to destroy 'what's left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair compensation' - Full of restrained force and wit, this is a valuable book on a subject that demands attention.' Observer; 'This vigorous and persuasive book ... argues that the fundamental issue is the growing contingency of the global workforce.' Roger D. Hodge, Bookforum; 'A book that offers landmark coverage of its topic.' --Andrew Ross, London Review of Books.
About the Author
ROSS PERLIN is a graduate of Stanford, SOAS and Cambridge. He has written for the New York Times, Time magazine, Lapham's Quarterly, the Guardian, Daily Mail and openDemocracy. He is researching disappearing languages in China.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By kate
Format:Hardcover
This book offers a great insight into the problems that come with unpaid internships. These do not only concern the intern him/herself but those whose jobs they are taking and society as a whole as we see social mobility grind to a hold. Much of this book will ring true with those who have done an internship before. For the 40+ generation it offers an alternative perspective to much of what our current government is trying to sell us.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars
15 reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
First rate white-collar muckraking
24 April 2011
By curmudgeon84
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Few college graduates kvetch about their unpaid internships these days; they're considered a given, on par with clunky freshman-year prerequisites like introductory composition or math. But as Ross Perlin points out in his excellent, wonderfully-researched book "Intern Nation," companies of all stripes have cashed in on this unquestioning attitude to a) substitute deserving paid workers with scores of interns, particularly in downturns; b) assign highly-qualified interns to menial jobs without any compensatory training; and c) make a quick buck in the process by tying-up with universities who offer internships for college credit.
None of this sounds particularly alarming until one starts tallying up the social consequences. For one, unpaid (and even paid) internships automatically disenfranchise tons of talented poor kids whose parents can't pony up the cash to support them (no wonder that hard-to-break-into industries like publishing and film remain the playground of trustfunders). Since interns aren't regular employees, companies needn't provide them with healthcare; interns can't even successfully sue for sexual harrassment in the workplace. Finally -- and this was the most shocking revelation for me in Perlin's book -- unpaid internships are illegal. They violate a host of labor laws. The government simply looks the other way.
Ross Perlin's "Intern Nation" is a spectacular piece of white collar muck-raking. Written in a fluid prose style that communicates a cool rage, and buttressed by hundreds of tiny stories and anecdotes, it ought to help undo some of the psychic damage being wreaked on unprotected workers by companies the world over.
None of this sounds particularly alarming until one starts tallying up the social consequences. For one, unpaid (and even paid) internships automatically disenfranchise tons of talented poor kids whose parents can't pony up the cash to support them (no wonder that hard-to-break-into industries like publishing and film remain the playground of trustfunders). Since interns aren't regular employees, companies needn't provide them with healthcare; interns can't even successfully sue for sexual harrassment in the workplace. Finally -- and this was the most shocking revelation for me in Perlin's book -- unpaid internships are illegal. They violate a host of labor laws. The government simply looks the other way.
Ross Perlin's "Intern Nation" is a spectacular piece of white collar muck-raking. Written in a fluid prose style that communicates a cool rage, and buttressed by hundreds of tiny stories and anecdotes, it ought to help undo some of the psychic damage being wreaked on unprotected workers by companies the world over.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Setting the record straight
10 May 2011
By gdw
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I have to say, LadyLaw clearly didn't read the book very carefully. Perlin points to more than one example of positive traineeship programs and also offers the story of "Tina" (page 138) who interned at ExxonMobil as an engineer. Just to quote the end of the story, "[Tina] 'found [herself] creating electronic tools which could be used to better-understand the refinery systems under consideration.' Not bad for a summer's work." In fact, Perlin's research is scrupulous and fair-minded; and his historical, legal, ethical, economic, and personal considerations of the internship system are brilliant and understandable. In contrast to LadyLaw's harangue, Perlin offers constructive criticisms and positive examples that can be used to improve our workplaces and society. Intern Nation is a totally noble effort and a great read.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking!
3 May 2011
By Mlinda
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
An intelligent and easily readable book addressing an extremely challenging topic to get one's arms around! Working with available research as well as extensive interviewing across the range of players involved, the author has provided the means for students and their parents, college placement organizations, corporations, governments and not-for-profits to hopefully rethink the love affair that now exists for internships-especially unpaid ones-as the way in the door to a career. Thank you, Ross Perlin!
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3.9 out of 5 stars
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