A review by thewallner
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

3.0

The thesis of this book was interesting - a unique perspective of the problems with our current version of capitalism, and the insufficiency of our checks on it. The book was an expansion of an essay that was published a few years prior. I haven’t read the essay, but given the redundancies throughout the book, I would imagine most people would probably get just as much from reading that. With all the extra space in this book, you’d think there would be a chance to explore this thesis through an intersectional framework, or explore who has access to the white collar “bullshit jobs” and how the system describes further entrenches existing racial and gender inequalities. Instead, the extra pages were mostly filled with anecdotes to help the reader understand the working definition of bullshit jobs. While many of the anecdotes often had the desired effect of making me angry at the system, there were much more than needed to make the point and in the latter half, I felt like I was finishing the book out of stubbornness more than anything else.

The thesis itself is compelling and will likely stick with me for a while, which is why I can’t go lower than a 3. But I would recommend reading the essay first (instead?).