Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago

Exit Zero is a powerful and poignant memoir that delves into the personal and social impacts of deindustrialization on one family's life.

Through vivid accounts of her family's struggles and upward mobility, Walley reveals the complex tensions among class, labor, economy, and environment in America's industrial fallout.

This book provides a fresh and important counternarrative to the notion that the distress resulting from deindustrialization was inevitable, giving voice to the many Americans whose experiences have been ignored.

With a nuanced assessment of the social impacts of deindustrialization and a unique blend of personal narratives and ethnography, Exit Zero is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of cultures of labor and their decline.