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When this book came out, it was most likely sometime in 2008 before the market hit the wall and all the big banks and other associated financial companies needed their now-famous bailout from the federal government. However, that doesn't mean that things weren't bad for everyone else beforehand, and this book is an attempt at documenting that. The main point that Ehrenreich makes in her effort is that the preceding years have been hard, especially for those who are not CEOs of major corporations...
A sometimes funny but often bitter rant about American society, government and lifestyle. I'd urge Barbara to actually live in other countries before she starts to expound on the shortcomings of our nation. At times the book felt like political propaganda for the Democrats. Overall, it's an entertaining book and like anything else I recommend consuming it with a grain of salt.
There’s no replacing the late, beloved pundit Molly Ivins and her ability to skewer the right with such great good humor, but Barbara Ehrenreich comes closest to filling the gap. In this collection of recent topical mini-essays, the author of the recent classic “Nickel and Dimed” targets the myriad issues our right-leaning government and corporate America use to distract us from those that could and should unite the country in righteous indignation. What should be uniting us, as Ehrenreich comes...
It pains me to say this, but Barbara Ehrenreich is no longer a journalist. Somewhere between "Nickel and Dimed" and this book, she crossed the line into punditry, taking a seat with Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann, no longer even holding up a pretense of objectivity. While I was intrigued by the premise of the book, which is supposed to tackle the subject of inequality in America, I found that the writing does not deliver. Instead of facts and statistics and information, I was bombarded with Barb...
For those readers familiar with Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch”, Ehrenreich offers a different type book here. Rather than inserting herself into a typical working-class existence, through a series of essays she examines the current state of America and what it means for the average American. From corporate irresponsibility to prisoner abuse, Ehrenreich intensely scrutinizes the duplicity of American politics and culture. Much of what she has to say, in my humble opinion, i...
I'm cashing in my "political capital" and reviewing this book, even though I didn't read more than two thirds of the essays.The book could have been titled The Audacity of Hope - NOT!!!. Perhaps you saw the movie Happyness, starring Will Smith, in which he couldn't catch a break in life for an unremitting two hours of torture at the theater. That movie's mood captures that despair of the essays in this book. On the other hand, Ehrenreich makes some interesting points. I really liked the essay ca...
This is a great book about what's wrong with our country. Ehrenriech doesn't just write about what's wrong, but if you've read her previous books then you know she also lives it. Before Spurlock did 30 days Ehrenriech was working for minimum wage and trying to see if it was possible to actually survive on that (spoiler alert: you can't). This book touches on several subjects including corporate greed, religion, gay marriage, and immigration. Her prose is biting and funny. She may be a grandma, b...
I've read her other books- I liked them, but this one, not so much. I understand her intent- to make us aware of absurd CEO salaries, unfair employment practices to increase profit, millions that do not have health insurance, etc.- and those facts and figures, and stories were stunning. I agree that these are huge problems facing the American public today. They frustrate me, and they obviously frustrate her. But, I don't want to read a whole book of horrible scenarios and only have few plausible...
Once again I try to read a book of essays, and once again I am frustrated. I think it's because I spend so much time online, and most popular essays are about the length of a really good blog post. Unlike blog posts, however, these essays lack any kind of linkage to provide context. When Ehrenreich wants to talk about something Rush Limbaugh said, I have to take her on faith. When she talks about increasing layoffs, etc, I have to take her on faith. I don't necessarily suspect her of lying, exac...
This book is a quick read. It's a series of short, political essays by Barbara Ehrenreich. I've read most of her books so far, and yes, she's a liberal. A bleeding heart, healthcare for all, died in the wool liberal. So, if liberalism isn't your cup of tea, skip this one. Your high blood pressure will thank you.Now, I'm going to veer off on a little tangent for a moment. You know, it's funny, I never see conservatives reading liberal-leaning political books, but I do see liberals reading conserv...
This book is comprised of short and witty essays and articles by the author of Nickel and Dimed, a book that I enjoyed. Barbara Ehrenreich is effective in illustrating all of the dysfunction of U.S. society, especially the struggles of the working poor and the middle class. Unfortunately, her essays sound like a series of rants with very few proposed solutions. I just don't see what good it does to talk about all that ails us and not recommend changes. As a result of reading this book, I am hype...
This book is really just a compilation of columns and short articles Ehrenreich has written for other publications collected together under topics such as the economy, politics, healthcare, and religion. Although I agree with a lot of her points, I don't agree with everything. But that's okay because it's always nice to get another viewpoint on things. A lot of the essays made me angry about things that have happened and are happening in this country and how we treat many of our citizens. It is
Barbara Ehrenreich is the kind of writer you might know about...and know her views in general...but may not have read. That's how it was for me until the last few days when I ripped through This Land is Their Land:Reports from a Divided Nation. She is what used to be called a liberal, not a bad word in my book, and she attacks the growing wealth divide in the U.S. with ferocity, humor, cutting wit, solid facts, and chilling anecdotes.The style of this volume is one short, snappy chapter after an...
Didn't care much for this piece of literature. I was expecting another Nickel and Dimed, and this wasn't it. Each 3 page chapter just regurgitated facts that you could find on the internet about corruption in American. There was no story. I found it very difficult to make it through the chapters.
I really liked Nickel and Dimed. It was original, clever, frightening and a total page-turner. I read it while restocking the shelves at a university bookstore, getting paid $6.50 an hour. It resonated. But this book? What happened? Here's how I imagine it:Publisher: we need another book from you.Barbara: Ugh, but I'm so busy with my speaking schedule I haven't been working on anything new.Publisher: we need it in three weeks.Barbara: Hum, okay, I'll hobble together something from my blog, rand...
This is a collection of articles by Barbara Ehrenreich (of Nickel and Dimed fame), mostly dealing with the class divide in America and other related issues. To me this was a quick but refreshing read, reminding me why I'm a lifelong lefty, and articulating my beliefs much clearer than I could.Here were some of the highlights for me...- "Private health insurance is only for people who aren't likely ever to get sick. In fact, why call it 'insurance,' which normally embodies the notion of risk shar...
I started out really liking this book--what can I say, she pulled at my tender heartstrings when she bitched about the bloated overclass--but I'm a fan of citing sources and studies...and, unfortunately, I don't think that there is one footnote or citation in this book. Boo. That's journalistic research for ya!
Ehrenreich has this amazing ability to look critically at social, political, education and economic policy and point out exactly where the policiy falls short of meeting its supposed goal. I think this is an important book for people to read because, even though each chapter is short and doesn't list a whole host of numbers and statistics (although she sights, of course, for your researching if you're so inclined) she really gets you think about the flip side of the current administration's poli...
Ehrenreich skewers the way that we look at America and it's culture. She points out the hypocrisies of our modern life. This is not a comfortable book to read but it would be a fabulous book for discussion. Since it was published in 2008 the president who gets the blame is W. I will have to look up her website to see what she thinks of our current one.Why I started it: I needed a nonfiction book to clear my palate after the last teen novel that I listened to.Why I finished it: This was a collect...
Barbara Ehrenreich has long been a voice for those who are working so hard that they don't have time to raise their voice...at least to anyone who can help them. In this book, copyrighted in 2008 before the big crash, she includes many poignant chapters, the most interesting of which is titled "Can You Afford to Be Poor?" In this chapter, she notes that there is a "ghetto two," a higher cost of living for low-income neighborhoods. This includes higher property tax rates (the basis for school fun...