Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich (Barbara Alexander) was born on August 26th, 1941. Barbara passed away September 1st, 2022 at 81 years old. Barbara Ehrenreich was born in Butte, MT, USA. Ehrenreich attended Reed College where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and Rockefeller University where she received a PhD in cellular immunology.

Barbara Ehrenreich was a political activist and author. She received the Erasmus Prize and the Lannan Literary Award.

Barbara worked first as an analyst with the Bureau of the Budget in New York City and with the Health Policy Advisory Center, and later on as an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Old Westbury.

Through most of the 70s, she worked primarily in health related research, activism, and advocacy, including co-writing with Deidre English, several feminist books and pamphlets on the politics and history of women’s health. During this time she started speaking frequently at conferences staged by women’s groups and women’s health centers, by universities, and by the United States government.

During the 80s and early 90s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and award winning columnist and essayist, and wrote 21 books.

She worked as a freelance writer. Barbara’s arguably best known for her book reviews, non fiction reportage, and social commentary. Her reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, Mother Jones, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, TV Guide, and Vogue.

Her essays, op-eds, and features have appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Life, The Wall Street Journal, Ms., and Z Magazine.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is undercover reportage from our most original and sharpest social critic.

Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty level wages. Back in 1998, Barbara chose to join them. She was inspired partly by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, promising that a job, any job, can be the ticket to having a better life. However how does anybody survive, let alone prosper, on just $6 an hour?

Barbara, in order to find out, left her home, took the cheapest lodgings that she could find, and took whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a nursing-home aide, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a waitress, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in crumbling residential motels and trailer parks. Soon, she found that no job is truly “unskilled”, and that even the lowliest occupations require some exhausting muscular and mental effort. She also found that one job isn’t enough; you need at least two if you intend on living indoors.

This book reveals low-rent America in all of its surprising generosity, tenacity, and anxiety; in a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategems for survival.

Barbara Ehrenreich: Awards & Accolades

Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed won the Alex Awards, Best Book, in 2002.

Barbara Ehrenreich: Lists & Other Mentions

• Nickel and Dimed:
  1. The Guardian: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Section in 2019.
  2. New York Times: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Selection in 2024.
  3. The Guardian: Best Books of the Year in 2019.
  4. Los Angeles Times: The 30 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Last 30 Years Selection in 2025.
  5. The Onion AV Club: The Best Books of the 2000s Selection in 2009.
  6. Entertainment Weekly: The New Classics - 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008 Selection in 2008.
  7. Gilmore Girls: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge Selection in 2007.

Related Authors

Fans of Barbara Ehrenreich also enjoy these authors:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. James Patterson, author of the Alex Cross Series.
3. George Orwell, author of: 1984.
4. Ray Bradbury, author of: Fahrenheit 451.
5. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.

Barbara Ehrenreich: F.A.Q