NY: Metropolitan/Owl/Holt. VG PB. (2002). 9th ptg. Ehrenreich decided to join the millions of Americans working full time year-round for poverty-level wages moving from Florida . to Maine to Minnesota. .

Synopsis

Our sharpest and most original social critic goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity.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 -- can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors.Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Read it for the smoldering clarity of Ehrenreich's perspective and for a rare view of how "prosperity" looks from the bottom. You will never see anything -- from a motel bathroom to a restaurant meal -- in quite the same way again.

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Details

Bookseller: Crabtree's Collection Old Books (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: BOOKS042402I
Title: Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America
Author: Ehrenreich, Barbara
Book Condition: Used - VG PB
Edition: 9th ptg
Publisher: Metropolitan/Owl/Holt
Place of Publication: NY
Date Published: (2002)
Keywords: Ehrenreich decided to join the millions of Americans working full time, year-round for poverty-level wages moving from Florida, Florida, Maine, Minnesota
Bookseller catalogs: Sociology;

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Crabtree's Collection Old Books

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Crabtree's Collection Old Books

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About Crabtree's Collection Old Books

Crabtree's Collection Old Books has been a reliable source of out-of-print books since 1983. We carry more than 35,000 titles in stock at our mail order operation located in Sebago, Maine, northwest of Portland. Our inventory includes most subjects, but emphasizes nature, history, children's books, and Americana.

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

VG: Very Good condition can describe a used book that does show some small signs of wear - but no tears - on either binding or...
PB: ...