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Cover of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed

  • 242 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 2001
  • 36 editions

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1 About this book

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Written from her perspective as an undercover journalist, it sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on the working poor in the United States.

The events related in the book took place between spring 1998 and summer 2000. The book was first published in 2001 by Metropolitan Books. It was expanded from an article she wrote from a January 1999 issue of Harper's Magazine. Ehrenreich later wrote a companion book, Bait and Switch, published September 2005, about her attempt to find a white-collar job.

In 2019, the book was ranked 13th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. In 2024, it was ranked 57th on The New York Times's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Immigrants, united states
  • Poor
  • Poverty
  • Travail
  • Document
  • Working class, united states
  • Poor, united states
  • Economic conditions

2 About Barbara Ehrenreich

1941–2022

Barbara Ehrenreich (, AIR-ən-rike; née Alexander; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and award-winning columnist and essayist and the author of 21 books.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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