Millions of Americans work full time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job—any job—could be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on six to seven dollars an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered as a woefully inexperienced homemaker returning to the workforce. So began a grueling, hair-raising, and darkly funny odyssey through the underside of working America.
“I was absolutely knocked out by Barbara Ehrenreich’s remarkable odyssey. She has accomplished what no contemporary writer has ever attempted—to be that ‘nobody’ who barely subsists on her essential labors. Nickel and Dimed is a stiff punch in the nose to righteous apostles of ‘welfare reform.’ Not only is it must reading but it’s mesmeric. You can’t put the damn thing down. Bravo!”
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“Entering the world of service work, Barbara Ehrenreich folded clothes at Wal-Mart, waitressed, washed dishes in a nursing home, and scrubbed floors on her hands and knees. Her account of those experiences is unforgettable—heart-wrenching, infuriating, funny, smart, and empowering. Few readers will be untouched by the shameful realities that underlie America’s economy. Vintage Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed will surely take its place among the classics of underground reportage.”
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“With this book Barbara Ehrenreich takes her place among such giants of investigative journalism as George Orwell and Jack London. Ehrenreich’s courage and empathy brings us face-to-face with the fate of millions of American workers today.”
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