ESSENTIAL LABOR

National Bestseller

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year

An NPR Best Book of the Year

PRAISE FOR ESSENTIAL LABOR

“Angela Garbes has given us the definitive explanation for something we all share: the sense that something is not right about our society’s treatment of parenting. ESSENTIAL LABOR is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched, and courageously personal book. Garbes shows us what’s broken about the exploitation of care and reveals how what’s essential about mothering can fix not just family life, but society. Timely and unforgettable.”

—Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us

“You might think this is a book for parents. You’re wrong. Essential Labor expands our understanding of what ‘mothering’ can and should look like; it’s a book for anyone — including and especially people who aren’t parents — who wants to imagine what a more equitable and caring community could look like.”

—Anne Helen Petersen, author of Out of Office and Can’t Even

“Essential Labor is for those of us who are exhausted and disoriented by these pandemic years but also eager to learn how to better care for our families, our communities, and ourselves. It’s become abundantly clear that no one is coming to save us; so how do we save each other, beginning with our youngest? Through rigorous research, vulnerable reflections, and lush writing, Garbes explores that question in ways that will crack open your heart and mind. Beyond laying out the challenges to raising whole and healthy children in a world shaped by capitalism, colonization, misogyny, and white supremacy, Garbes offers a warm, inviting vision of how we might ensure our own survival in a rapidly changing world. Essential Labor is the book we need right now.”

—Dani McClain, author of We Live For The We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood