Someone has to do the jobs that society requires but considers shameful, and journalist Eyal Press investigates the psychological toll on workers who perform this dirty work. He profiles drone operators who kill from trailers in Nevada, slaughterhouse workers who process thousands of animals daily, prison guards and corrections officers who witness and sometimes perpetrate violence. These workers bear moral burdens that society prefers not to acknowledge. Press, a contributing writer at The New Yorker, builds on sociological research about dirty work while grounding his analysis in individual stories. He interviews drone pilots who struggle with what they have done, mental health workers in prisons who witness abuse they cannot stop, undocumented immigrants in meat plants who fear reporting injuries. The pattern he identifies is consistent: dirty work is pushed onto the marginalized, those with few alternatives who can be ignored when they suffer. Society benefits from their labor while denying them recognition or support. The book connects individual experiences to larger structures, showing how inequality determines who ends up doing dirty work and how that work reinforces inequality. Press does not argue that dirty work should not be done, only that its costs should be acknowledged and shared more equitably. Readers concerned with labor, inequality, or moral responsibility will find his investigation illuminating.