ABOUT THE BOOK:

  Nickel and Dimed is Barbara Ehrenreich's story of trying to live on what she could earn at a series of "minimum - waged" full-time jobs she held beginning in 1998. The jobs included being a waitress, a Walmart clerk, a nursing home attendant, and a cleaning lady... the kind of jobs that single mothers and women dropped from the welfare rolls often find. It is only recently that the issue of "the working poor," those who work full-time at government - defined minimum wage levels, but still cannot "make it," has come into view. Many people think that working hard at a full-time job is all one needs to do to survive in today's economy. Ehrenreich's story helped show the reality of the lives of "the working poor" (Ripon University).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Barbara Ehrenreich lives near Key West, Florida and has authored many publications:

• Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War
• The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (New York Times Best Seller)
• Fear of Failing: The Inner Life of the Middle Class (National Book Critics Circle Award nominee)
• Eight other books

She is a frequent contributor to Time, Harper's Magazine, The New Republic, The Nation, and the New York Times.

Enrenreich shared the National Magazine Award for Excellence in Reporting in 1980, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1987-1988, and has received honorary degrees from Reed College and the State University of New York at Old Westbury. She is a frequent radio and TV talk-show guest, and a noted public speaker.                                                                                                    

The daughter of blue-collar Democrats, Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, in 1941. She moved frequently as a child and attended high school on both coasts, then found herself attracted to the bohemian lifestyle of Reed College. She majored in cell biology, but found her true calling as a writer and anti-war activist in New York during the Vietnam Years. There she also met and married her first husband, John Enrenreich. Together they became involved Health-Pac, a group that struggled to provided more health-care options to low-income workers in New York. She spent most of the late '70's and '80's focused on her writing career, and branded her political activism with her own characteristic wit and writing style.

She is a mother of two and a grandmother to Anna, and currently lives near Key West, Florida, with her second husband, Gary Stevenson. She spends much of her time speaking at college campuses around the country, as well as submitting regularly to The Progressive. Ehrenreich is also vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (University of Buffalo).

Overall comments about Barbara Enrenreich as a speaker were consistent and very positive. The University at Buffalo best summarized this consensus by saying that Enrenreich was "articulate, passionate, and at times, humorous. She has very strong views, which she openly shares. Her presentation provided for good conversations with students, faculty and staff." Smith College described her as having a "long history of being an advocate for change and an activist and social critic on issues of fairness and justice."

STUDENT REACTION TO NICKEL & DIMED IN AMERICA

Students' overall reaction to Nickel & Dimed in America is also very consistent among the universities contacted. Universities report that students had mixed reactions to the book. Many students liked the book. Those who did not, "disliked the fact that Enrenreich could step back into her own more comfortable life at any time" (Niagara University). "The mixed reactions helped to generate great discussions, and even provoked some student-led community action" (University of Buffalo).

Less complimentary comments came from Murray State University, KY where the contact said the students found her tone in the book "arrogant," and that they despised and distrusted her. However the contact said she enjoyed Enrenreich's book and speech. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, a conservative group of UNC Chapel Hill students held a press conference where they called Ehrenreich's book "classic, Marxist rant."