Rate this book

A Governor's Story: The Fight For Jobs And America's Economic Future (2011)

by Jennifer Granholm(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1586489976 (ISBN13: 9781586489977)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

PublicAffairs

review 1: When I first saw this book I wondered why a Californian would want to read it? Of course there is the fact that I'm planning a vacation to Detroit in a few weeks (that's right, vacation-destination, Detroit) but other than that, why?Turns out its a rather gripping read and offers some good national advice. It's also nice to see a politician seeming to truly have fought for the good of her state. Interesting to learn that she grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Then, who would have thought? after high school she headed to Los Angeles to break into the movies. She ends up at Harvard law school (after graduating from UC Berkeley) and arrives in Michigan only because she married a Michigander. Was a little puzzled by the--twelve-- overseas trips she makes, including to Kore... morea, Japan, Sweden, Germany and the Middle East. Yes the trips yield jobs for Michigan but was that truly the best way to get them, taking an already harried woman away from her important day job and husband-and-three-children-family, for weeks? Plus of course the cost of transporting a sitting American governor, and staff, around the world.I got a bit stalled reading her prescription on how to create "American jobs in a global economy" and had to skim to finish. Though I agree with her point that the federal government needs to help companies so that they can compete with other countries where governments offer much help. When she mentions the suicides at Foxconn, however, and talks about workers who live eight to a dorm room and says "how can we compete" with that? The answer is: we can't compete and that's a scary thought. Current laissez-faire capitalism and government loggerheads are the road to pennies per hour wages in the US. This is because that is the only way America can compete with Foxconn and its not clear that reasonable infusions of federal capital--if by some miracle they happened--would be enough. Finally, had to smile when she talks about how the government should pay to educate people but only in "useful" ways. THis thinking is scarier than the Foxconn threat--because it means the thought police are here now, in our own country. Don't be silly and think about majoring in French and Political Science, she is saying, (her majors) put your mind only on practical applications. No thought is given to what we might lose as a society if thinking about the elegance of the French, the thorny questions of political thought not to mention, art, history, music, literature are all buried beneath the study of that which is useful. But the saddest thing here is that Granholm does not see that it was a person schooled in French and political science--rather than something more "useful"--who became Governor of Michigan and accomplished all the impressive things she writes about as well as devised her thoughtful proposals for the future.
review 2: Just as I started to read this book I realized the author was going to speak at the Democratic National Convention.Jennifer Granholm was governor of Michigan during the economic downturn and did an amazing job of turning the states economy around. She had help from the Obama government and she is an ardent supporter. It's clear she is biased towards Obama, but she did a good job of trying to keep Michigan from falling prey to the auto industry's problems. less

Download links for: A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future

Advertising