Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By In America

» VCU Libraries book checkout information

» Copies of Nickel and Dimed are available on special displays in Cabell Library on the Monroe Park Campus, and in Tompkins-McCaw Library on the MCV Campus

» Official web site

» More about the author, Barbara Ehrenreich

» Other books by Barbara Ehrenreich

» Review from Publisher's Weekly:

In contrast to recent books by Michael Lewis and Dinesh D'Souza that explore the lives and psyches of the New Economy's millionares, Ehrenreich (Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, etc.) turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce's bottom rung. Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, she left behind her middle class life as a journalist except for $1000 in start-up funds, a car and her laptop computer to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker for a month at a time. In 1999 and 2000, Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Fla., as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, Maine, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minn. During the application process, she faced routine drug tests and spurious "personality tests"; once on the job, she endured constant surveillance and numbing harangues over infractions like serving a second roll and butter. Beset by transportation costs and high rents, she learned the tricks of the trade from her co-workers, some of whom sleep in their cars, and many of whom work when they're vexed by arthritis, back pain or worse, yet still manage small gestures of kindness. Despite the advantages of her race, education, good health and lack of children, Ehrenreich's income barely covered her month's expenses in only one instance, when she worked seven days a week at two jobs (one of which provided free meals) during the off-season in a vacation town. Delivering a fast read that's both sobering and sassy, she gives readers pause about those caught in the economy's undertow, even in good times.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

» Barbara Ehrenreich's interview with PBS's David Brancaccio, host of Now!. Transcript and audio file.

» PBS's Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, interviews Madeline Janis-Aparicio, executive director of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), on living wage issues. Transcript and audio file.

» Democracy Now! with host Amy Goodman, interview on the history of struggles for living wage in the United States. Transcript and audio file.

» Making Ends Meet, book review by Dorothy Gallagher

» Hulteen, Bob. "Nickel and Dimed: on (Not) Getting By in America. (Books: a year of living dangerously)."
Sojourners 31.1 (Jan-Feb 2002): 56(3).

» Murray, Bobbi. Minimum security: seeing the limits of living-wage laws, activists seek a raise for all workers."
The Nation 279.2 (July 12, 2004)

» Caplan, Jeremy. "Trying to Make A Decent Living."
Time 167.26 (June 26, 2006): 56.