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    A Study Guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
    A Study Guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
    A Study Guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
    Ebook45 pages38 minutes

    A Study Guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

    By Gale and Cengage

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    A study guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Newsmakers for Students series. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Newsmakers for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateMay 10, 2016
    ISBN9781535822466
    A Study Guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

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      A Study Guide for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed - Gale

      1

      Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America

      Barbara Ehrenreich

      2001

      Introduction

      When one is charged a little bit at a time until the expense grows beyond expectations, that is called being nickel and dimed. In 2001's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, essayist and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich applies this notion to minimum-wage workers. She argues that their spirit and dignity are chipped away by a culture that allows unjust and unlivable working conditions, which results in their becoming a de facto, or actual without being official, servant class. Spurred on by recent welfare reforms and the growing phenomenon of the working poor in the United States, Ehrenreich poses a hypothetical question of daily concern to many Americans: how difficult is it to live on a minimum-wage job? For the lower class, what does it take to match the income one earns to the expenses one must pay?

      Rather than simply listen to other people's accounts, Ehrenreich herself assumes the role of a minimum-wage worker. In different states and in several different jobs, she attempts three times to live for one month at minimum wage, giving up her middle-class comforts to experience the overlooked hardships of a large sector of America. While she freely admits that hers is an unusual situation, she stresses it is also a best-case scenario; others face many more difficulties in their daily lives, such as the lack of available transportation. Due to an accessible style and subject matter, Nickel and Dimed became a bestseller that helped restart dialogue on the current state of American work, American values, and the consequences of letting a national emergency remain unacknowledged for too long.

      Author Biography

      Though Barbara Ehrenreich is best known for her 2001 investigation of the working poor, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, her career as a journalist and social critic spans three decades.

      Barbara Alexander was born August 26, 1941 in Butte, Montana, the daughter of New Deal Democrats. (The New Deal was legislation presented by President Roosevelt in the wake of the Great Depression. It was based on the idea that the government should intervene to help stabilize the economy.) She earned a bachelor's degree in chemical physics from Reed College in 1964 and a Ph.D. in cell biology at Rockefeller University. While at Rockefeller, she met her first husband, John Ehrenreich, and became involved in both the antiwar movement and the cause for improving health care for low-income families. This led to two collaborations between the Ehrenreichs: Long March, Short Spring: The Student Uprising at Home and Abroad (1969) and The American Health Empire: Power, Profits, and Politics, a Report from the Health Policy Advisory Center

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