General

The Text and Community Committee is proud to present a semester-long program of events centered on Barbara Ehrenreich's recent book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Published in 2001, this book has already garnered a significant amount of popular and academic attention. It has been a New York Times bestseller; been featured on the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour (December 20 2002) and many other news programs; sparked the production of a well-received play by Joan Holden; and it has already made its way onto many academic syllabi across a range of disciplines including Anthropology, Economics, English, Law, Sociology and Women's Studies.

Midway through Nickel, Ehrenreich comments that "The poor seems to have disappeared from the culture at large, from its political rhetoric and intellectual endeavors, as well as from its daily entertainment" (117). Ehrenreich's book attempts to redress this situation. Nickel chronicles Ehrenreich's efforts to make ends meet while working a series of minimum-wage jobs. As she moves in succession from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, working first as a waitress, then as a housecleaner and lastly as a shelf-stocker for Wal-Mart, Ehrenreich debunks the comforting myth that hard work is the key to economic advancement for the working poor.

Barbara Ehrenreich is a long-time social activist and feminist who has written on the subjects of healthcare, class, families and sex. Some of her many books include The American Health Empire: Power, Profits, and Politics (1970), The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment (1983), Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War (1998) and Women in the Global Factory (with Annette Fuentes) (1998). She is a regular contributor to The Progressive. Ehrenreich holds a Ph.D. in biology from Rockefeller University (1968).