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Buy itThe bestselling, landmark work of undercover reportage, now updated
Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nickel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for one book” initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage Americathe story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associatehas become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse.
Now, in a new afterword, Ehrenreich shows that the plight of the underpaid has in no way eased: with fewer jobs available, deteriorating work conditions, and no pay increase in sight, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of fourteen books, including Dancing in the Streets and The New York Times bestsellers Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. A frequent contributor to Harper’s and The Nation, she has also been a columnist at The New York Times and Time magazine. In 2010, Nickel and Dimed was named one of the decade's top ten works of journalism by the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.
| Publisher | Holt Paperbacks |
| ISBN | 0805088385 |
| Features |
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| Format | Paperback |
| Author | Barbara Ehrenreich,Frances Fox Piven |
| EAN | 9780805088380 |
| Is Adult Product | No |
| Label | Holt Paperbacks |
| Edition | Reprint |
| Dewey Decimal Number | 305.569092 |
| Studio | Holt Paperbacks |
| Number Of Pages | 240 |
| Title | Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America |
| Release Date | 2008-06-24 |
| Publication Date | 2008-06-24 |
| Manufacturer | Holt Paperbacks |
Review by Jeffery Bauman, 2010-08-22
I picked up this book at my local bookstore awhile back, mostly because it just looked interesting. Seeing as I am so completely far from being rich and work a retail job, I thought this would be an interesting read. Having just finished reading the book, I found much of it to be quite intriguing. Not revelatory by any stretch of the imagination, but there were many points raised over the course of the book that I'm glad were addressed. These mainly have to do with terminally low wages, and the problems of getting by day to day. That said, I do have some criticism for this book, which mostly has to do with the way the author chose to write it. We are reminded several times throughout the book that the author is upper class and has a Ph. D. One mention of this would be plenty, but it is repeated continually. Also, the parts where she tries to be "witty" come of as somewhat snobbish. One such instance is when she makes little cracks at the book collection of the owner's house the maid service she is working for is cleaning. How does she know that the owner doesn't enjoy the book laid out on the coffee table that was written in the 1920's? They very well could. Another thing that is rather hard to ignore is that fact that sometimes the author didn't budget herself very well. Personally, I would not drop more than $20.00 on workpants that will get ruined due to wear and tear no matter what. Also, she was somehow able to procure (or already had it before she started this little adventure) marijuana to smoke a few days before her employment drug test. Then she complains about how unfair those drug tests are. Seriously? I also found it a little annoying when she tried to envision herself as some "savior" or something. She seemed to think a little too highly of herself. The whole book has this "I'm better than this, I'm better than everybody" viewpoint. Uh-huh. Well newsflash, you're not. Get over it. Now, I did ultimately enjoy the book for the most part, but it is hard to recommend it. The author's pretentious tone make it hard to read it times. The information and findings are overall good, but like I said, not exactly revelatory. I do recommend this book, but perhaps sampling a chapter first before purchasing would be a good idea.
Review by whatTHE!!!, 2010-08-20
This book is worth reading - and it gives you a look into a world that is pretty foreign for most of us. The problem that I have is that the author included pages and pages of pro-union editorializing. I was especially amused by her description of her friend in New York - not as a friend from New York, but as a young African-American feminist from New York. It is as if she is saying - "I'm friends with a young African American feminist - look how progressive I am - please be impressed with my progressiveness!" News Flash - it is 2010 and lots of people are friends with, and even marry people of other races and everyone who has set foot near a university knows a few feminists, right-wingers, left wingers etc! Just about everyone also has an opinion about unions and minimum wages. I don't care any more about her opinion on these subjects than she is likely to care about mine. She should have just stuck to writing about her experience and kept politics out of it. She seems not to grasp that people who are paid higher wages get those wages for two reasons: First because the job they are doing adds large amounts of value, and second because the job they are doing could not be done by anyone off the street with a weeks training. I could work very hard all day lining up pebbles - but just working hard at something does not justify high levels of compensation. Lining up pebbles adds no value and just about anyone could do it - that is why no matter how hard I work at lining up pebbles no one will pay me for it. Low wage jobs add debatable amounts of value but almost anyone can do them - that is why the compensation is very low. Labor unions in the US are great - for China and India - where most of our manufacturing jobs end up because union workers demand wages that are totally out of line with the value they add and how easily the skills they bring to the table can be replaced. Sorry - I didn't make the laws of Economics - I just live here.
Review by Rodney A. Warren, 2010-08-05
My son had to read this book for his summer reading requirement for an AP high school course. I decided to read it along with him so that we could discuss it if he had any questions. At first I thought it was a great idea for a book and I found the author witty, intelligent and humorous in the first chapter and 1/2.
Her first job as a waitress and the way that she was treated wasn't exactly eye-opening revelations, but it did give a great first hand account of how many people treat lower pay service jobs.
In the second chapter, when she took a job as a maid, that's when I started to get a bit mad with the author. I guarantee that there are some wealthy people in this world who treat service people with disrespect, but her accounts were too one sided. She had not one story of a home owner who had compassion, offered water or tipped. I worked as a carpet cleaner for 4 summers and there were far more good people that I worked for than bad.
It is during this chapter too that her attitude changes. She makes fun of people who collect books (now that one really pissed me off) because she believes these are just show pieces of the owner's vanity.
The last thing that made me not like the book is that I think it was FAKE. She did too many things to BE THE NEWS, instead of report the news. The first example is when she went to "work" in Minnesota. She knew that she was going to be going undercover, but coincidentally she happened to smoke pot the week before. This allows her to go into the unfairness of drug tests and how they are an invasion of privacy, etc.
The final straw was when she worked for WalMart. Again, a reporter should be unbiased and report the news, not create it (the union thing).
In the course of 250 pages, the author was able to offend the lower class, the middle class and the upper class, sometimes breaking it down specifically at one point, Mexicans and "Minnesota Anglos."
Review by J. Michael, 2010-07-30
In the grand tradition of Nellie Bly and other crusading journalists who went undercover to expose the poor conditions under which "the other half" lived, leftist elitist Barbara Ehrenreich put down her latte and dropped her G's in order to see first-hand what the simple folk actually do. And here's is her amazing discovery: it sucks to be poor. Just as Marie Antoinette had a completely inaccurate conception of peasant life, it comes as a revelation to our parasitic ruling class, who live like kings by manipulating words and spouting glib platitudes to the captive masses, that it's no fun trying to live on minimum wage, or work retail, waitress, or clean toilets. Normal people need no such lesson. This book is mere voyeuristic slumming, like those Victorians who would go on tours through the East End for the shock value of poverty. I see no other purpose here. The author offers no real solutions to a situation that is inherent in a society where people are commensurately rewarded for their marketable skills. Knowing her political affiliations, I would assume that she would put forward socialism as the panacea, but she presents no explanation about how such a system would better the lot of the working class.
As an aside, I find Ehrenreich to one of the most irritating women I've ever come across. She keeps flaunting her working class credentials, by pointing out her father's origins in the copper mines, without mentioning that he went on to become an executive for the Gilette corporation, thereby keeping baby Barbara from ever knowing hardship. I am also dubious about her supposed sympathy. Her sense of superiority is palpable, as she mocks her subjects' foodways, spirituality, leisure activities, and manner of speaking. For all intents and purposes, the working people Ehrenreich duped serve as nothing more than zoo animals here, put on exhibition for the entertainment of Ehrenreich's peers.
I also find her writing style synthetic and phony, without any charm or individuality, typical of college-educated feminists in the social sciences. Take this sentence for example: "...I have to take care of their cockatiel, a caged bird that, for ornithological fitness and sanity, has to be let out of the cage for a few hours a day." Her gratuitous use of the word "ornithological" is a glaring instance of bad writing. Ehrenreich, wanting to appear intellectual, or in a misguided attempt to "spice up" her writing, simply took a large synonym for "bird" and shoehorned it into the sentence. So, in short, I found this book neither informative nor well-written. Skip it.
Review by Lily, 2010-07-15
My book club selected this, I doubt I would have selected it on my own. At first, I found the author's sarcasm entertaining. Eventually it just got on my nerves. Did she have to keep reminding us that she was a writer with an advanced degree? I enjoyed some portions of this book but I cannot give it more than a 2 star rating.
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