This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation Paperback – 27 April 2009
by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
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Paperback : 239 pages
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Review
Provocative, angry and funny, often at the same time. - Kirkus Reviews
Ehrenreich's vicious, hilarious and striking tour de force of American culture and society today addresses a range of issues from class warfare to health care, higher education to feminism to religious institutionalization and political power. She weighs in with wit, clarity and authority that few authors can match. - Publishers Weekly
The cliché that you laugh until you cry takes on new meaning when reading This Land is Their Land. Incisive, trenchant and furious, it celebrates the have-nots. At the same time, it asks an important question: What will it take for America's beleaguered residents to rise up and say, 'Enough'? - The Indypendent
About the Author
Barbara Ehrenreich is the bestselling author of over a dozen books, including Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch, Bright-sided, This Land Is Their Land, Dancing In The Streets, and Blood Rites. A frequent contributor to Harper's, The Nation, The New York Times and Time magazine, she lives in Virginia.
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4.1 out of 5 stars
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Jennifer Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Ehrenreich is a voice for the average woman and man in the United States....READ her books!
Reviewed in the United States on 18 August 2015
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Ehrenreich is a progressive thinker, a sociologist, a prolific writer, a feminist, and voice for the average woman and man in the United States. She speaks of the divide between the rich and the poor like few other authors do, and she does it eloquently, with words that are easy to grasp without having to sift through boring rhetoric of any kind. She is refreshing, and she is timely, and she is wise. I recommend ALL of her books, including this one, and I own them all. I bought them right here on Amazon for very good prices, used, and I recommend that if you want to understand the sociopolitical climate in the United States, you study this brilliant sociologist's works.
7 people found this helpful
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Frederick S. Goethel
4.0 out of 5 stars Will Make You Wonder How They Get Away With It
Reviewed in the United States on 4 August 2008
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I do not agree with everything that the author wrote in the book, but the vast majority of the material was spot on. These essays maybe short, but they carry a lot of punch. From skewering the corporate elite to Democrats and feminism, the author leaves almost no stone unturned.
The author has an easy to read, humorous style that can, and often does, have a cutting sarcastic edge. This book is well worth reading for the style of writing alone. Combined with the content, it was a read that was hard to put down.
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M. Kitteridge
5.0 out of 5 stars This Land is Their Land
Reviewed in the United States on 11 January 2016
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This has been on my read list for long time and while clearng out my accumulated paperwork I found this that my chiropractor recommended. I love her insight and her wit- truely a breath of fresh air to not be constrained by what the Ann Ryan Nation would expect in uniform though and desention or opinion.
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S. Bordwell
5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Easy Read
Reviewed in the United States on 12 August 2008
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This book is very informative and a fast read. Every chapter is about 2 pages but filled with facts. It is an easy read and makes a good bedtime book because you can read a few pages and you've covered a few topics. After I read this book, I gave it to my sister to read and she thought it was very interesting and well written. My sister isn't into politics so I think this is a good book that will inform all sorts of readers about what is going on in our world today.
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John G. Curington
3.0 out of 5 stars good food for thought, though could be better
Reviewed in the United States on 14 July 2010
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In 2001, Barbara Ehrenreich published "Nickel and Dimed"- a touching and revealing exposé about low-wage jobs in the US. "Nickel and Dimed" was spectacular.
I expected something similar with "This Land is Their Land," but I was a little disappointed. Rather than being a coherent story, "This Land is Their Land" is a collection of essays. The good part of this is that she can cover many disparate topics. For example, her essays range from inequality, to health care, religion, and sex. She has thoughtful ideas on all of these topics. On the other hand, I felt a bit unfulfilled by each of her essays. She makes good points, but this book lacks the depth of "Nickel and Dimed."
On the whole, though, "This Land" was worthwhile and thought-provoking.
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Heidi
Jun 25, 2008Heidi rated it it was amazing
Ehrenreich has this amazing ability to look critically at social, political, education and economic policy and point out exactly where the policiy falls short of meeting its supposed goal. I think this is an important book for people to read because, even though each chapter is short and doesn't list a whole host of numbers and statistics (although she sights, of course, for your researching if you're so inclined) she really gets you think about the flip side of the current administration's policies. And while she's certainly harder on the Conservatives, she even busts on my boy Bill and other Democrats because she's not out to win an election for someone- she's out to make people think. So I would recommend this book to anyone who intends to vote in 2008, particularly if you think that the past 8 years have been decent or better. I know there are a lot of people who might ask- yeah, but does she offer solutions? And she does, in a tongue in cheek way, and I think the reason that she takes this approach is because the solutions to a lot of these problems are not complicated to figure out.Its a good sit in the bookstore and read kind of book- my favorite chapter is entitled "Children Deserve Veterinary Care, too". Check it out. (less)
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Helen
Feb 20, 2009Helen rated it it was amazing
For those readers familiar with Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch”, Ehrenreich offers a different type book here. Rather than inserting herself into a typical working-class existence, through a series of essays she examines the current state of America and what it means for the average American. From corporate irresponsibility to prisoner abuse, Ehrenreich intensely scrutinizes the duplicity of American politics and culture. Much of what she has to say, in my humble opinion, is right on target. For instance, in regards to the role that religion and spirituality currently plays in our current political culture she says, “…what both parties need to understand is that economic issues are moral issues. Poverty is a moral issue; 47 million Americans without health insurance is a moral issue. The same goes for the environment: why fight to save a fertilized egg cell for a life spent gasping for air or fleeing the ever-rising coastlines? If you’re going to be prolife, you’ve got to be proenvironment and pro-economic justice.”
I found Ehrenreich’s viewpoints to be enlightening and her writing style terribly amusing. At times, however, her sarcasm was a little over the top and might prevent reader’s who disagree with her points to discount her arguments entirely.
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Joe Robles
Apr 23, 2010Joe Robles rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
This is a great book about what's wrong with our country. Ehrenriech doesn't just write about what's wrong, but if you've read her previous books then you know she also lives it. Before Spurlock did 30 days Ehrenriech was working for minimum wage and trying to see if it was possible to actually survive on that (spoiler alert: you can't).
This book touches on several subjects including corporate greed, religion, gay marriage, and immigration. Her prose is biting and funny. She may be a grandma, but she's got the snark of a Jon Stewart. If you love the Daily Show and Colbert Report then this book's for you. (less)
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Dennis Littrell
Jul 24, 2019Dennis Littrell rated it it was amazing
Kicks butt
Verbally speaking.
I'm jealous. I like to think that I can write hot, sharp prose that singes the footsies of the miscreants on the Right; but I can't hold a candle to Barbara Ehrenreich (so to speak), nor can most journalists/social critics working in America today. Take one part suffragette tea, stir in some leftover Wobbly stew, add a dash of farm worker's jalapeno pepper, some heartland hardtack, garnish with some Lesbo Island fig chutney and serve with a mason jar of limousine liberal Chablis and you've got a fair approximation of the kind of dish Ms. Ehrenreich is.
Here she is on the political tactics of Republican Christians:
"Distraction was the means to get people to vote against their own economic self-interest--that is, for tax cuts for the rich, cuts in social programs for everyone else, and endless war. The real threats to well-being, people were told, are abortionists, stem cell researchers, and matrimonially minded gays…All the guy in the pulpit had to say was 'vote pro-life' or 'save the family from marauding gays,' and the message got through: vote Republican, which translated into feed the fat cats straight from your wallet." (pp. 225-226)
And here she is rallying the feminist troops:
"…[W]e need a kind of feminism that aims not just to assimilate into the institutions that men have created over the centuries but to infiltrate and transform them.
"To cite an old and far from naïve feminist saying: 'If you think equality is the goal, your standards are too low.' It is not enough to be equal to men, when the men are acting like beasts. It is not enough to assimilate. We need to create a world worth assimilating into." (p. 196)
Ehrenreich believes that health care costs are sucking the blood out of the economy. She writes:
"Most countries are proud to have a health care system. It's an organized way of helping the sick and infirm--a mark of genuine civilization. Not so here, alas, where the health system is rapidly becoming a health hazard. After decades of privatizing, profiteering, and insurance company-driven bureaucratization, Florence Nightingale has morphed into Vampira." (p. 167)
Ehrenreich is worried about the "Invasion of the Cheerleaders": "The New York Times reports that drug companies are increasingly hiring college cheerleaders as their sales reps--to the point where there is a 'recruiting pipeline' from college cheerleading squads direct to Big Pharma's sales force. One attraction of cheerleaders is simply that they're attractive, and doctors are still about 75 percent male." She asks, "Will that potentially hazardous, $300-a-month prescription drug actually help you, or was your doctor just charmed by a cheerleader's dazzling, gloss-enhanced smile?" (pp. 123-124)
Noting that economic growth has not in recent years translated into higher real income for American families, Ehrenreich writes:
"The soothsayers have slaughtered the ox and are examining the gloppy entrails for signs: rising unemployment, a falling dollar, weak consumer spending, the credit crisis, a swooning stock market. Could there be something wrong here? Could we actually be approaching a, God forbid, recession?" (p. 94) She adds, "As Bill McKibben argues in his book Deep Economy, the 'cult of growth' has led to global warming, ghastly levels of pollution, and diminishing resources. Tumors grow, at least until they kill their hosts; economies ought to be sustainable." (p. 97)
(I would ask, is capitalism a ponzi scheme on the future?)
I think Ehrenreich is at her best when she rushes, populist banner held high, into America's ongoing class warfare:
"I'm not upset by the $210 million dollar parachute CEO Robert Nardelli received as a send-off from Home Depot. Not at all. To those critics who see it as one more step in the slide from free-market capitalism to a gluttonous free-for-all, I say: What do you really know about Nardelli's circumstances? Maybe he has a dozen high-maintenance ex-trophy wives to support, each with a brood of special-needs offspring. Ever think of what that would cost?
"Or he may have a rare disease that can be held at bay only by daily infusions of minced fresh gorilla liver. Just try purchasing a gorilla a day for purposes of personal consumption--or any other endangered species, for that matter. There are the poachers to pay, the smugglers, the doctors and vets. I'm just saying: Don't start envisioning offshore bank accounts and 50,000-square-foot fourth homes until you know the whole story." (p. 17)
The book is a collection of short pieces arranged under seven sections entitled, "Chasms of Inequality," "Meanness on the Rise," "Strangling the Middle Class," "Hell Day at Work," "Declining Health," "Getting Sex Straight," and "False Gods." Versions of some of these pieces originally appeared in publications like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Progressive, and The Nation. I suspect some of the others are from her blog on the Internet, but I didn't check. I still like to read from the pages of a book instead of from a computer screen. It's handier. And besides I can't stand lying in bed with a laptop on my chest. Maybe Amazon will send me a Kindle.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
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Lukasz
Nov 11, 2019Lukasz rated it it was amazing
Bardzo ciekawa książka. Autorka porusza w niej sporo tematów dotyczących sprawiedliwości społecznej w Stanach Zjednoczonych, a może raczej powinienem powiedzieć, braku sprawiedliwości społecznej w społeczeństwie amerykańskim.
Często Stany Zjednoczone kojarzone są z tak zwanym „Amerykańskim Snem”. Jednak rzeczywistość opisana w tej książce dalego odbiega od tego stereotypu. Autorka właśnie przez tą książke stara soę obalić ten stereotyp.
Społeczeństwo amerykańskie jest pełne kontrastów. Z jednej st ...more
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Mona Ammon
Apr 17, 2018Mona Ammon rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 2018
TITLE: This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation
WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK: It fit in my reading challenge being connected to the book before it, On Tyranny, by being of the same format, essays
REVIEW: This author also wrote Nickle and Dimed which I have heard a lot about but had not read. I liked This Land is Their Land so much I am definitely going to read Nickel and Dimed very soon. It was brutally funny. Using hyperbole and bringing faulty points of view to their extreme conclusions she points on the lack of logic and hypocrisy of some points of view. I grew up poor and don't hold people's economic status, past or present against someone. However, reading this book made me realize how how subconsciously there are times when I blame the victim for their circumstances. It is not to say an individual has no role and cannot have any impact on their circumstances but there are a whole host of reasons beyond people's control. This book also makes clear the ways in which the 1% (my term) manipulate the emotions of the working class to deflect them from displaying unhappiness upward. The way they present workers with false choices. Either you get to have "a job" or you get worker's rights, but anything we give you will only jeopardize our ability to continue to give you a job. Quote from the book "..... the same arguments Americans hear whenever they raise a timid plea for a higher minimum wage, or a halt to the steady erosion of pensions and health benefits. What scream the economists who flack for the employing class, 'If you do anything, anything at all, to offend or discomfit the employers they will respond by churlishly failing to employee you.'" The point how the Bible is used to distract workers from economic issues by bringing up social issues. Even though, as she points out, many of the topics the right wing flogs get no or small mention in the Bible but poverty and economic justice which are mentioned hundreds of times are not talked about the right wing. In fact, instead, those in poverty are often blamed for their circumstances and it stated as a moral failing. This is a very eye opening book. She mentions a lot of other books that I plan to read as well. Even though this was a book of essays it was better researched than a Glen Beck or Bill O'Reilly book.
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Paula Adams
Apr 11, 2018Paula Adams rated it it was amazing
She is so concise, so clear, and so well spoken. Even though this book is several years old it is still timely and on point. This was hard for me to read given my stay sane vs stay well informed issues. I highly recommend this book and all her works.
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Donna Wolff
Sep 15, 2020Donna Wolff rated it it was amazing
A book full of essays on political topics. Written with sarcasm and wit. I found the subject matter still topical. A funny and interesting take on the state of American life and our politics.
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Peter
Mar 26, 2020Peter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Great collection of essays on today's America, full of witty repartee. I definitely recommend it for these epidemic times. ...more
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Cindy
Oct 15, 2008Cindy rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: anyone with a conscience
Shelves: political
And I thought I was liberal! Ehrenreich is spot-on and brilliant. She takes on the Rich, Democrats, Republicans and all matter of hypocrites in between. Exploring the growing gap between the wealthy and the rest of us, the author is a great voice for the voiceless.
The book is written in short (2-4 pages)essays under larger categories such as, CHASMS OF INEQUALITY, MEANNESS ON THE RISE, STRANGLING THE MIDDLE CLASS, HELL DAY AT WORK, DECLINING HEALTH, GETTING SEX STRAIGHT and FALSE GODS.
Ehrenreich is also a bawdy smart-ass. In one essay she complains that the powers that be refer to the economy as if it were a large deflated sex organ - just waiting to be engorged again.
There's also this take on Gender Equality: "What we have learned from Abu Ghraib, once and fo all, is that a uterus is not a substitute for a conscience. This doesn't mean gender equality isn't worth fighting for for its own sake. It is. If we believe in democracy, than we believe in a woman's right to do and achieve whatever men can do and achieve, even the bad things. It's just that gender equality cannot, all by itself, bring about a just and peaceful world."
Take that Sarah Palin!
I'm still smiling the second time through it. (less)
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Molly
Feb 25, 2010Molly rated it it was amazing
Easily the angriest, most revolutionary book I have read in a long time, I really enjoyed this collection of Ehrenreich's essays from 2007-08.
Just one of the interesting thought experiments she conducts in the book, she quips, “we can expect the Heritage Foundation to reveal any day now that some seniors are cashing in their Social Security checks for vodka and Viagra. Just as welfare was said to ‘cause poverty,’ the experts may soon announce that Medicare causes baldness and that Social Security is a risk factor for osteoporosis: the correlations are undeniable.”
While Ehrenreich makes most of her big points in a witty way, her call to think more about the disparities that exist in America today really resounds. Looking forward to the revolution. (less)
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Sue
May 04, 2009Sue rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: middle or high school social studies teachers for their students
Shelves: nonfiction
I really enjoyed this because it made me think and it made me upset. I want to show this book to our social studies teacher and have him read it, and think about if the 8th graders could possibly work on a social justice/community service project stemming from one of the essays in the book. Since the book's essays cover a wide range of topics that affect them directly, like health care, sex education, _regular_ public school education, growing poverty -- I think it would be important for them as future citizens to learn about something and research ideas to make things better (or at least draw more attention to something that everyone should know but doesn't). (less)
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Desiree
Aug 12, 2008Desiree rated it it was amazing
Very different from her other books in that she seems VERY bitter about what is happening in this country. Mostly about how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, each chapter tackling a different subject.
One thing that really bothered me reading this book is that hospitals are now putting people in jail if they cannot pay their bill! Yep, I already knew that uninsured people are charged more than those whose insurance companies have negotiated lower rates for them. Yale-New Haven hospital has obtained 65 arrest warrants for delinquent debtors over the past three years.... What is happening to this country???? (less)
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Krista
May 02, 2012Krista rated it it was amazing
Another classic collection of serious yet side splitting truths about our country, and more specifically, our ass backwards government. While this collection was released in 2006 and references Dubya here and there it is still relevant today (especially during this lovely election year). Ehrenreich uses humor and satire throughout to convey the hypocrisy, injustice and plain old fuckery taking place every day under our noses while we are being tricked into arguing about abortion and gay marriage. Brilliant. Barbara Ehrenreich is my non-fiction mother. (less)
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Displaying 1-30 of 42 reviews rated 1 star. Clear filters
Becca
Jan 02, 2009Becca rated it did not like it
I really liked Nickel and Dimed. It was original, clever, frightening and a total page-turner. I read it while restocking the shelves at a university bookstore, getting paid $6.50 an hour. It resonated.
But this book? What happened? Here's how I imagine it:
Publisher: we need another book from you.
Barbara: Ugh, but I'm so busy with my speaking schedule I haven't been working on anything new.
Publisher: we need it in three weeks.
Barbara: Hum, okay, I'll hobble together something from my blog, random things I've read on the internet, and spurious unfounded assumptions that will make even severely left-leaning Rebecca roll her eyes and snort.
And Voila! You have "This Land is Their Land."
Now, there could be perfectly legitimate ideas in here, and even some "truths." But how can I rely on this author when one of her points is as follows:
The rich associate the poor with fat, i.e. greasy spoon. Therefore, the rich don't eat fat, but instead eat high-carb low fat diets. Therefore they are hungry all the time. Therefore they are miserable. Therefore they try to satiate their misery with money. Which they extort from poor people.
If rich people just ate more butter, they would give up their champagne-filled jacuzzis and pay a living wage to their Dominican maids.
Gyuuuuuuuhghghshghgh the sound of my brain melting out of my ear.
Sometimes it seems like she is going for a satirical note-- like she's been gorging on Michael Moore for a couple of weeks and is imitating his funny snarky tone. But Michael Moore's books got me outraged, dubious, curious, invested, and best of all, ROTFL. This book's just got me rolfing.
Sorry Barbara! Keep up the good work!
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D.M. Dutcher
Feb 27, 2012D.M. Dutcher rated it did not like it
Shelves: bad-nonfiction, politics, nonfiction
This is a collection of two-page at best short little rambles about various subjects that approach liberal cliche. I actually enjoyed her Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and am sympathetic to her populist form of liberalism, but this book is a mess. Each little snippet simply is too short to even work as snapshots. By the time she warms up to her argument, it's over and on to the next one.
They are also much stereotypical and less measured than her other books. Without the human equation, and talking to other people, it loses a lot of what makes her writing appealing. Some of the subjects cry out for more length-skewering popular business books, or how a pharmaceutical company hires cheerleaders to sell, because of the fake positive attitude they can project. But most are drearingly typical rants about favorite liberal stalking horses, and so brief that they blur into each other.
I recommend avoiding this and picking up her longer works. They are much more appealing regardless of your political views. (less)
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Leigh
May 07, 2009Leigh rated it did not like it · review of another edition
Shelves: 2009, gave-away
SUCH a disappointment! I loved Nicked and Dimed; I thought Bait and Switch a solid follow-up, if perhaps not quite as sharp or sassy as its predecessor. But this work was just limp and uninspired.
If you were expecting a book with a solid thesis, look elsewhere; This Land is Their Land is just a collection of essays by Ehrenreich, some of which have been previously published in other sources. Lacking any formal citations, they read as editorials - Ehrenreich's opinions, nothing more. And unfortunately, with no research to back up those opinions, they become quite grating - even to a reader that has, in the past, agreed with at least some of her opinions and philosophies.
(In truth, by the end, I was not only irritated, but downright confused. What's with the religion-bashing at the end? In her criticism of religion, I couldn't help feeling like she was throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and ignoring the good aspects of many religious organizations.)
Frankly, whether you are familiar with Ehrenreich or not, I'd give this one a pass. (less)
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Terri Lynn
Feb 28, 2014Terri Lynn rated it did not like it
Shelves: nonfiction, sociology-and-culture
Surprisingly, I didn't like it. I had liked a previous book of the author's but this one was just her taking a serious subject and writing a bunch of short chapters with snarky personal opinions, many that made no sense or were just attacks minus facts or information to judge by. Here is an example: she and a friend went to Driggs,Idaho where, just over the Tetons, was wealthy Jackson Hole. They rented a little place where they could enjoy the same mountains and trails that the rich did though living in an area where hotel and restaurant workers did. Some rich people moved in and she grumbled that they had no right to be there.She said she takes it "personally" and "needs to see vast expanses". Well, who is stopping her?
I am disturbed by Corporate America and the 1% and the CEOs but she is just randomly choosing people to blame for everything and to raise hell about while offering no proof of anything said nor any workable solutions.
Don't bother. It isn't worth it. (less)
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Laura
Jun 09, 2011Laura rated it did not like it
Uuuugggghhhh. Apparently, like many others, I read Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream and really enjoyed Barbara Ehrenreich's voice. Apparently, I didn't read the dustjacket closely enough to understand this book was meant to be SATIRE. Don't get me wrong. I agree with pretty much every position she takes on every single page. But I just really couldn't bear the glib tone. That's pretty much all it boils down to. I just wanted to shout, "Oh, quit being a pompous ass!" throughout the whole thing. (less)
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Bryan
Jul 10, 2014Bryan rated it did not like it
This book was dreadful, and I'm allegedly someone who is right in Ehrenreich's wheelhouse: liberal, progressive, committed to social justice. I found these short rants to lack depth and real critical thinking on the part of the author. I would have loved to see some citations, because without them she seems like someone who gets her news from Buzzfeed lists and email forwards. Attempts at being funny or sarcastic just made her seem snarky. The last third of the book (about sex and religion) felt like it was entirely out of place, but since there wasn't really a cogent argument here I guess that's not surprising. (less)
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Tracy Miller
Nov 16, 2008Tracy Miller rated it did not like it
Shelves: did-not-finish
You know...she's like Rush Limbaugh for liberals (well, Rush + 50 IQ points). But definitely the same passion and...I just got too tired to finish it. I guess it is escapist of me, but I don't want to read about the horrifying state of the world in the midst of the economic meltdown we're currently in. (less)
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Joseph
Sep 20, 2008Joseph rated it did not like it
Shelves: non-fiction
This was a disappointment. SHe writes with no direction or overarching theme, the book just turns into a gripe session concerning the state of America. It's like watching the Colbert Report. Each chapter she attacks a new subject....from the repression of this to the abuse of that. (less)
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Robert
Sep 28, 2013Robert rated it really liked it
Barbara Ehrenreich is the kind of writer you might know about...and know her views in general...but may not have read. That's how it was for me until the last few days when I ripped through This Land is Their Land:Reports from a Divided Nation. She is what used to be called a liberal, not a bad word in my book, and she attacks the growing wealth divide in the U.S. with ferocity, humor, cutting wit, solid facts, and chilling anecdotes.
The style of this volume is one short, snappy chapter after another. I don't know this, but I guess these chapters began as blog comments and then were built out. She takes on the financial crash, greedy CEOs, the plight of the young and old trying to find work, the way corporations like Walmart (she really skewers Walmart; don't shop there!) exploit their workers, and so forth. Can you imagine Walmart tell its aging "greeters" that they can't have stools anymore? Welcome to the world of cost-cutting at all costs. She also takes a good look at feminism, abortion, gay marriage, and the way in which the Republican party and evangelicals have woven their snake-like way together to produce a truly venomous anti-Christian Christianity. The war in Iraq? As bad as Walmart!
She doesn't say it exactly the way I like to say it, but she makes this point: There is class warfare going on in America but it's not being waged by the poor against the rich, it's being waged by the rich against the poor...and it's all but over. The poor are hardly worth bothering about. The rich are now out to squeeze the Chinese, Indians and Vietnamese. Our middle class got a flat tire in the seventies and we've been running on the rim ever since. She even points out that the wealth gap between CEOs and their number #3 executives has spread. Pity the #3s. A fellow told me last week about one of his neighbors who had a mid-to-high level job at Blue Shield/Blue Cross in North Carolina and earned $350,000 a year. He said to her, "What do you do?" She told him. He said, "Hell, I could do that." She said, "You probably could." So Ehrenreich suggests we reform the health care system by outsourcing it to the Third World. This would mean those overpaid executives would be out of work, and our fine doctors and nurses would have to practice in Mexico and Thailand, but we'd save a bundle.
I don't want to try to out-Ehrenreich Ehrenreich, but I'd like to close this note with a confession. I already knew most of what she wrote. I think that's true of a lot of thinking Americans. What's puzzling is that we understand exactly the four or five major tragedies that led to our current difficulties, and yet it's so hard to make that the dominant theme of the day. At the moment the Republicans in the House of Representatives may help us change that by shutting down the government in their effort to defund Obamacare. I don't want to see the government shut down, but if it brings the temple of greed crashing upon the right wingers' heads, let it fall.
For more of my comments on contemporary writing, see Tuppence Reviews (Kindle). (less)
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Kkraemer
Feb 19, 2017Kkraemer rated it really liked it
Barbara Ehrenreich has long been a voice for those who are working so hard that they don't have time to raise their voice...at least to anyone who can help them. In this book, copyrighted in 2008 before the big crash, she includes many poignant chapters, the most interesting of which is titled "Can You Afford to Be Poor?"
In this chapter, she notes that there is a "ghetto two," a higher cost of living for low-income neighborhoods. This includes higher property tax rates (the basis for school funding in many states), higher food costs (to make up for theft), higher insurance rates (ditto), and higher costs for borrowing (your rate is based on your credit rating, part of which is based on your income. If your income is lower, your rate for borrowing will be higher). Add to that the cost of trying to get into rental housing (first, last, and a month's rent), compared with the cost of living in a motel...or saving for furniture or a car or appliances as opposed to getting things from rent-to-own, a dealer-based auto loan, or higher-cost appliances loans, and you can see that life on the lower side of the income ladder is a bit more dicey.
The astonishing thing about this book, though, is that it was written BEFORE current times. It was written back in what seems now the flower-strewn fields of green that were the Bush days. In it, she talks about healthcare, low-paying employment, life at the office, and the loss of the middle class. While the book seems like a series of rants, they're tame compared to what would be written today.
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Jason
Dec 26, 2012Jason rated it really liked it
This is a collection of articles by Barbara Ehrenreich (of Nickel and Dimed fame), mostly dealing with the class divide in America and other related issues. To me this was a quick but refreshing read, reminding me why I'm a lifelong lefty, and articulating my beliefs much clearer than I could.
Here were some of the highlights for me...
- "Private health insurance is only for people who aren't likely ever to get sick. In fact, why call it 'insurance,' which normally embodies the notion of risk sharing? This is extortion."
- "What is this fixation on growth anyway?... the 'cult of growth' has lead to global warming, ghastly levels of pollution, and diminishing resources. Tumors grow, at least until they kill their hosts; economies ought to be sustainable."
- "If anyone is ruining the American family, it's all the employers who refuse to recognize that their employees have family responsibilities as well as jobs... those who don't pay enough for their employees to live on... and those who abuse their salaried employees with expectations of ten or more hours of work per day."
- "Show me the passage in the Bible that bans stem cell research. See if you can find the tiniest allusion to abortion. Yes, there's homophobia in the Bible, along with endorsements of slavery and a weird obsession with animal sacrifice. Not a word, it should be mentioned, about gay marriage... Poverty and injustice, on the other hand, get over three thousand hits."
- (From a really powerful essay about Barbara's reaction to seeing pictures of female soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and having to rethink her approach to feminism): "To cite an old and far from naive feminist saying: 'If you think equality is the goal, your standards are too low.' It is not enough to be equal to men, when the men are acting like beasts. It is not enough to assimilate. We need to create a world worth assimilating into." (less)
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Lisa
Jul 17, 2008Lisa rated it really liked it
Barbara Ehrenreich is the Michael Moore of print journalism. She tells it like it is, using statistics and facts accompanied by her always present wit. Whether it's gay marriage, abortion, low-wages or lack of health care, Ehrenreich will leave you educated and enraged. (less)
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Andrew Leon
Mar 20, 2018Andrew Leon rated it really liked it · review of another edition
I'm going to say right up front: This is probably not a book you should read.
Wait, let me revise that: This is not a book you should read if you haven't read any other books by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Also: This is not a "book." It's a collection of essays.
Funny story: I didn't know that when I started reading it. Having read many other Ehrenreich books, I was more than a little thrown by how disjointed this seemed... until I realized that it was a collection of essays, then it made sense.
The other drawback is that the book is 10 years old, and there are moments when that is readily apparent. Beyond the fact that she's talking about the Bush presidency, that is. There are some things that have dropped out of the national consciousness since the book was published, which can leave you wondering why that was even something being talked about at the time. Like the attack on Cabbage Patch dolls back in the 80s by Right-wing nutjobs. Not that that is in the book, but it's one of those things that, when you look back at it, it leaves you scratching your head "why?!?!"
That said, this book still has a point to make, and it's a point that needs to be made again and again until people realize they need to do something about it rather than wait for someone else to fix it for them. Especially since the someone they are hoping will fix the problem are the very ones who are the problem: the 1%.
Unfortunately, the book will also highlight for you many of the ways we are regressing back to all of the places we were 10 years ago. Like, say, health care. Which got better for a brief period with Obamacare but, which, now, is being killed slowly by Trump (#fakepresident) and his goons. Or, say, banks...
Look, "we" put Dodd-Frank in place to prevent banks from doing things like they did that caused the economic collapse a decade ago. You do remember that, right? It was so bad that people were just walking away from their homes. You haven't forgotten, have you? The answer, or part of it, was Dodd-Frank. Of course, the 1% want to be able to bleed everyone else for as much as they can get, and they don't much like regulations which protect the consumer so, again, Trump (#fakepresident) and his Republican death machine have undone much of what was put in place to protect everyone else.
Actually, when you look at what happened there with the banks, it's like they were merely put in a time out. They had a club they were beating on people with and had it taken away from them and told to go sit in the corner. All the Republicans went to go play in the corner with the banks until they could maneuver the club around to someone who would give it back to the banks. It's all really rather sickening and the sheep who make up the people who vote for Republicans and who can't see beyond the dog-whistle words of "abortion" and "guns" will contentedly continue to gnaw off their own legs rather then open their eyes and look at what's being done to them by people like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnel, and the ever-blazing Trumpster fire who thinks he's a president.
Yeah, okay, none of that last paragraph was in the book, because it was written more than a decade ago, but there are sections of the book that really resonate with what's happening right now, especially since Dodd-Frank is being dismantled right now, so you can see the return to the things she's talking about in the book.
Anyway... If you've read other Ehrenreich books and enjoyed them, you'll probably find this a good read. Besides, it's quick, especially if you read it as bites of essays here and there. If you haven't read Ehrenreich, go get a copy of Nickel and Dimed or Bright-sided and start with that. (less)
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Peggy
Apr 07, 2019Peggy rated it really liked it
this was written in ...2007 or 8?..and a lot of it is true to this day. Very disturbing information about the divide between the haves and have nots. Ehrenreich is so good at putting things in words in a way that is informational and lively.
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Pamela
Jun 08, 2018Pamela rated it really liked it
Shelves: non_fiction, politics-political, own-read, type-essays, z-mt_tbr_ch_2018, notes
Some of the essays are a little outdated, from the Bush era, pre-Affordable Health Care Act & many essays about health care woes. Also gay rights, marriage has changed. Read this book and you will see there is progress!
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