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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Cover

Awards

New York Times Notable Book for 2001

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage.

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity — a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

Review:

"Ehrenreich's scorn withers, her humor stings, and her radical light shines on." The Boston Globe

Review:

"Ehrenreich is passionate, public, hotly lucid, and politically engaged." Chicago Tribune

Review:

"We have Barbara Ehrenreich to thank for bringing us the news of America's working poor so clearly and directly, and conveying with it a deep moral outrage and a finely textured sense of lives as lived. As Michael Harrington was, she is now our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism." Dorothy Gallagher, New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Barbara Ehrenreich is smart, provocative, funny, and sane in a world that needs more of all four." Diane Sawyer

Review:

"Nickel and Dimed is an important book that should be read by anyone who has been lulled into middle-class complacency." Vivien Labaton, Ms. Magazine

Review:

"[Ehrenreich's] account is at once enraging and sobering....Mandatory reading for any workforce entrant." School Library Journal

Review:

"Jarring, full of riveting grit....This book is already unforgettable." Susannah Meadows, Newsweek

Synopsis:

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages. Social critic Barbara Ehrenreich joined them, moving into a trailer and working as a waitress, hotel maid, and Wal-Mart sales clerk. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and duality.

About the Author

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller The Worst Years of Our Lives, as well as Fear of Falling and Blood Rites. She lives near Key West, Florida.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 7 comments:
Tracy, June 6, 2009 (view all comments by Tracy)
Entertaining and very informative! Unfortunately I am one of the working poor at this time, but I'm fortunate in having it better than most of the people that the author meets in her experiment. This book has definitely motivated me to strive for better career opportunities.
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(3 of 10 readers found this comment helpful)
sphonthego, July 11, 2008 (view all comments by sphonthego)
This book is a very good read to those who think that everything is fine and dandy. This is a great book that is rhetorically effective! From her move from Flordia to Maine to Minnesota as a waitress, maid, and a Wal-Mart employee, Barbara Ehrenreich made an effect of the people who will read her book. New York Times raves it as "valuable and illuminating". This is a must read about the "'working' poor".
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(13 of 26 readers found this comment helpful)
Lauren Wyhs, January 28, 2008 (view all comments by Lauren Wyhs)
This is a good introduction to the working poor in this country and why upward mobility is so difficult to attain for so many people. The writing style is very engaging and easy to read, more like a novel than nonfiction, with occasional analysis by the author.
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(19 of 33 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 7 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9780805063899
Subtitle:
On (Not) Getting By in America
Author:
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Editor:
Kay, Shara
Editor:
Shara, Kay
Author:
Hochschild, Arlie
Publisher:
Holt Paperbacks
Location:
New York, N.Y.
Subject:
General
Subject:
American
Subject:
United states
Subject:
U.S. Government
Subject:
Sociology - Social Theory
Subject:
Poverty
Subject:
Minimum wage
Subject:
Unskilled labor.
Subject:
Labor & Industrial Relations - General
Subject:
Government - U.S. Government
Subject:
SOC045000
Subject:
Economic Conditions
Copyright:
Edition Number:
1st Owl Books ed.
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Series:
Spare Change?
Series Volume:
02-2079S
Publication Date:
May 2002
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
240
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.50 in

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