Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Rick Wartzman’s new book, The End of Loyalty, details the erosion of the social contract between corporations and employees since World War II, the decline of American labor and the current rise of populism in the United States.

Wartzman follows four corporate giants – General Electric, General Motors, Kodak, and Coca-Cola – through the twentieth century’s booms and busts, examining the changing relationships between employers and employees and how much has been lost: job security and steadily rising pay, guaranteed pensions, robust health benefits, and much more.

“The End of Loyalty is the rich story of how the corporate bonds that were once essential to American life have fractured. It’s a prescient book that helps explain the rise of Donald Trump and why so many people feel anger and an acute sense of loss.”Jill Abramson, former executive editor of the New York Times

The discussion will be moderated by James Lincoln and David Levine, both from the the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Please register to secure your spot.

Thursday, November 2, 4:00 pm
IRLE Director’s Room
Lecture will be followed by a reception.

You can hear Rick speak on NPR’s Fresh Air and learn more about his book in the LA Review of Books.

Rick Wartzman directs the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society at the Drucker Institute. A veteran journalist, he spent many years as an editor and columnist at The Wall Street Journal and contributed to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting at the Los Angeles Times. He writes for Fast Company and hosts a podcast on the intersection of business and society called The Bottom Line.

James Lincoln is the Mitsubishi Chair in International Business and Finance, emeritus, at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He was director of the IRLE from 1997 to 2002.

David Levine teaches business administration at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He was previously a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers and a senior research economist at the US Department of Labor.