2005 Book Reading Project
General Info: The Idaho State University Reading Project invites students/faculty/staff to read Nickel & Dimed prior to the start of the fall semester. The goals of the project are to provide a common intellectual experience for students; bring student, faculty, and members of the Idaho State University (ISU) community together for discussion and debates; promote cross-disciplinary thinking and dialogue. Each spring a committe consisting of ISU faculty, undergraduates, and staff select the Reading book.
About the Book: Millions of Americans work for poverty level wages. Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. Nickel & Dimed reveals low wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity.
About the Author: One of today's most recognized and original social commentators, Ehrenreich has been a contributing writer for "Time" magazine since 1990. Her articles covering healthcare, class, families, sex, and gender politics have appeared in a range of national publications. Ehrenreich received the Sydney Hillman Award for Journalism and a Brill's Content "Honorable Mention" for a chapter of Nickel and Dimed, which appeared in "Harper's" in January 1999. A second essay entitled "Maid to Order," which grew out of her research for this book, was also published by "Harper's" (April 2000), where it generated so many letters that the magazine had to create a special section to accommodate them.
Book Reviews
- Coolidge, S. (Jul 2001). "Good help is so hard to find these days." Christian Science Monitor 93:159, p. 17.
- Curran, C. (2002). "Trading places." Public Interest 146, pp. 141-144.
- Early, S. (Jun 2001). "Prole like me." Nation 272:23, pp. 23-25.
- Gallagher, D. (May 2001). "Making ends meet." New York Times. Retrieved from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E5DA1238F930A25756C0A9679C8B63 on February 10, 2005.
- Ledbetter, T. (May/Jun 2003). "Nickel and Dimed." California Nurse 99:4/5, pp. 7-9.
- Schaeffer-Duffy, C. (Nov 2001). "It's a Hard-Knock Life." America 185:16, pp. 24-27.
- Sharpe, R. (Jul 2002). "Nickel and Dimed." Feminist Economics 8:2, pp. 227-241.
Author Information
- "Barbara Ehrenreich," Biography Resource Center
- Interviews with Barbara Ehrenreich, University of North Carolina
- Ehrenreich, B. (Jan 1999). "Nickel and Dimed." Harper's Magazine 298:1784, pp. 37-53.
- Sherman, S. (Nov/Dec 2003). "Class warrior: Barbara Ehrenreich's singular crusade." Columbia Journalism Review 42:4, pp. 34-42.
Discussion Guides
- Publisher's Reading Guide
- Discussion Questions, University of North Carolina
- Discussion Questions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Discussion Questions, North Arizona University
- Discussion Questions, State University of New York – Brockport
- Nickel and Dimed, Reading Group Guides
- OneRead: a community-wide reading program
- Guthrie Theater Study Guide
Tips on Leading a Book Discussion Group
- Guidelines for Discussion Leaders, University of North Carolina
- Some Pointers for Book Discussion Leaders, University of North Carolina and Villa Park Library
- General Guidelines for Facilitating Book Discussion Groups
Background Issues
(A word from the Library: Good information literacy practices require you to evaluate internet resources critically, as many sites have an agenda or promote a particular point of view. In the interest of objective and unbiased study, be aware of the source of web-based information. For additional research, the library recommends databases such as CQ Researcher and LexisNexis, searching for keywords "minimum wage", "living wage", and "poverty".)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Department of Labor
- Characteristics of Minimum Wage Earners, 2003, U.S. Department of Labor
- A Profile of the Working Poor, 2002, U.S. Department of Labor
- Highlights of Women's Earnings, 2003, U.S. Department of Labor
- Minimum Wage Resources, U.S. Department of Labor
- Making Work Pay: The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage
- Bureau of Economic Analysis. U.S. Department of Commerce
- BEARFACTS, interactive summaries of personal income by state
- One Town, One Job; A Profile of Low-Wage America. Noah Adams, National Public Radio, 2003. Includes audio files and profiles of low-wage workers.
- U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty in the US, 2000
- Poverty Guidelines, Research and Measurement. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Poverty-Related Links. Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Homelessness, Department of Housing and Urban Development
- National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
- Living Wage Resource Center
- Living Wage, Economic Policy Institute Issue Guide
- "Maid for a Day", USA Today, March 25, 2005.
- The Center for Working-Class Studies, Youngstown State University
RESOURCES @ THE LIBRARY
- "Hill, Ronald Paul (2001). Surviving in a material world: The lived experience of people in poverty. Notre Dame, IND: Notre Dame University Press. (HV 91 H53 2001)
- Johnson, J. (2002). Getting by on the minimum: The lives of working class women. New York: Routledge. (HQ 1421 J65 2002)
- "New poverty studies: The ethnography of power, politics, and impoverished people in the United States. (2001). New York: New York University Press. (HC 110 P6 N396 2001)
- "Profile of the working poor, 2000 (2002). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor. (L 2.71:957)
- "Quigley, William P. (2003). Ending poverty as we know it: guaranteeing the right to a job at a living wage. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. (HD 4975 Q54 2003)
- Rainwater, L. (2003). Poor kids in a rich country: America's children in comparative perspective. New York: Russell Sage. (HV 741 R33 2003)
- "Rodgers, Harrell R. (2000). American poverty in a new era of reform. New York: M.E. Sharpe. (HC 110 P6 R638 2000)
- Terkel, Studs. (1974). Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about it. New York: Pantheon. (HD 8072 T4)
- Uneven tides: Rising inequality in America. (1993). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (HC 110 I5 U47 1993)
- "Work welfare and politics: Confronting poverty in the wake of welfare reform. (2002). Frances Piven et al. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon Press. (HV 91 W67 2002)