Thursday, June 1, 2017

Review: The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland

The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland by Dan Barry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fascinating story of mentally handicapped men shunted into involuntary indentured service by a turkey processor that took them out of Texas state institutions to living on site at processing plants in Iowa and elsewhere. State institutions themselves seem to prison-like and inhospitable that I don't think it was until late in the book and then "boys" were elderly that I understood the weight of cruelty and financial mismanagement left them impoverished and broken, despite opportunities and a need for better working conditions and long-term planning. It almost seems that abandoned by their state and families with no oversight the men were gradually more and more taken advantage of until the decades past and their doom was complete.

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Review: The Human Tradition in the Vietnam Era

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