I have mixed feelings about this book, which is a collection of very short essays on a variety of topics, most of which relating to the economic and social inequality in America. In some of the essays, in particular the the ones relating to economic inequality, I could feel Ehrenreich's outrage a...
First off, then concept of this book doesn't even deserve one star. Secondly, I have to say that when I look around the country, I don't see very many up-beat people. I see people that are so consumed with being "realistic" that they don't believe there is anything to hope for or in. Being positi...
What a wild ride and what an amazing woman! I loved Nickel and Dimed and wanted to read Fear of Falling but never got around to it. I never knew that Ehrenreich gave up a life of science exploration and philosophy to become the activist that she is. This memoir echoes many others of mild family d...
Ehrenreich provides an antidote to everyone who believes that success is solely a result of attitude. From reading about people whose livelihoods were discarded during the Great Recession, it seems that many were demoralized by the popular perception that if only they had believed in themselves a...
DISCLAIMER: This is my rant on the “classic Marxist rant” by Barbara Ehrenreich in the form of Nickel and Dimed. REALLY. I am not saying that we should not help poor people. I am mostly just annoyed by the author. If my political ranting will bother you, please don't read this. AND if you do, you...
Part of the reason why I’m a somewhat less than trustworthy reviewer is that writers really do get extra points from me for being able to write well and for being nice people. I mean, if I have enjoyed spending time with a writer over the couple of days it has taken me to read their book, well, ...
Barbara Ehrenreich is one of my hero authors because of her books Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She has written a number of other books but these two address social issues that I find particularly compelling. They are also books where her writing is quite personal and succinct. On the oth...
If I may begin with a brief round of applause: I didn't do half bad at the work itself, and I claim this as a considerable achievement. You might think that unskilled jobs would be a snap for someone who holds a Ph.D. and whose normal line of work requires learning entirely new things every coupl...
“I do believe in the power of positive thinking,” veteran newspaper editor Ben Bradlee wrote recently. “I don’t know any other way to live.” 1 We’ve gone so far down this yellow brick road that “positive” seems to us not only normal but normative—the way you should be. A restaurant not far from w...
An eviction notice has arrived. A child has been diagnosed with a serious illness and the health insurance has run out. The car has broken down and there's no way to get to work. These are the routine emergencies that plague the chronically poor. But it struck me, starting in about 2002, that man...
2. 2 Quoted in Moorehead, p. 30. 3 Quoted in ibid., p. 94. 4 Quoted in ibid., pp. 128-29. 5 Quoted in Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, p. 249. 6 Frey and Wood, p. 147. 7 Quoted in ibid., p. 59. 8 Quoted in Cowley, pp. 40-41. 9 Quoted in Raboteau, p. 62. 10 Quoted in Murphy, p...