Itemize Books In Favor Of Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
| Original Title: | Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream |
| ISBN: | 0805081240 (ISBN13: 9780805081244) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Barbara Ehrenreich, Patrick Knowles, Leah Gray, Laiman Godel, John D. Wise, Laurie Wise, Rev. Jack Rilger, Tom Chang, Jim Lukasewski, Donna Eudovique, Jeff Clement, Hillary Meister, Dean Gottschalk |
Barbara Ehrenreich
Paperback | Pages: 248 pages Rating: 3.48 | 4500 Users | 557 Reviews
Point Appertaining To Books Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
| Title | : | Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream |
| Author | : | Barbara Ehrenreich |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 248 pages |
| Published | : | July 25th 2006 by St. Martin's Press (first published August 19th 2005) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Sociology. Politics. Economics. Business |
Explanation To Books Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
The New York Times bestselling investigation into white-collar unemployment from "our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism"--The New York Times Book ReviewAmericans' working lives are growing more precarious every day. Corporations slash employees by the thousands, and the benefits and pensions once guaranteed by "middle-class" jobs are a thing of the past.
In Bait and Switch, Barbara Ehrenreich goes back undercover to explore another hidden realm of the economy: the shadowy world of the white-collar unemployed. Armed with the plausible resume of a professional "in transition," she attempts to land a "middle-class" job. She submits to career coaching, personality testing, and EST-like boot camps, and attends job fairs, networking events, and evangelical job-search ministries. She is proselytized, scammed, lectured, and--again and again--rejected.
Bait and Switch highlights the people who have done everything right--gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive resumes--yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster. There are few social supports for these newly disposable workers, Ehrenreich discovers, and little security even for those who have jobs. Worst of all, there is no honest reckoning with the inevitable consequences of the harsh new economy; rather, the jobless are persuaded that they have only themselves to blame.
Alternately hilarious and tragic, Bait and Switch, like the classic Nickel and Dimed, is a searing expose of the cruel new reality in which we all now live.
Rating Appertaining To Books Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Ratings: 3.48 From 4500 Users | 557 ReviewsRate Appertaining To Books Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Ugh. This book was a whole lot of nothing. She did not take the project seriously or make a proper effort at getting a middle class sort of a job. To top it off, her tone was extremely smug. For someone clueless, she had no right to think she had it all figured out. It wasn't until the very end of her project, when I'm sure the book was due to her publishers, that she realized she may have made some serious mistakes along the way. I wish she'd started all over at that point and tried again andNot so certain why people reaect negatively to this book. Having been through the white-collar lay-off process (and I choose to say "lay off" instead of "in transition" since it is more honest), I have to agree with Ehrenreich. The advice given by career coaches is generally silly EST-like pop psychology. And by focusing on flaws in you -- appearance, body language, resume, etc -- we get distracted from the true costs that outsourcing has had on American culture. The rich get richer, and the
While I didn't agree with all of the points raised in Nickel & Dimed, I enjoyed it. I wish I could say the same for this book. Maybe I took things a bit too personally but working in public relations I was insulted that Barbara thinks she can easily step into a director's position in PR with a made up resume and absolutely no contacts in the industry. But she approaches every "adventure" in job searching with snobbish disdain. I agree that it's hard for people to find jobs in America and
From a blog post I wrote in 2006:I was looking forward to reading Barbara Ehrenreich's latest tome, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. I really enjoyed Nickel and Dimed in which the author took on several minimum wage type jobs and tried to live on her salary. Her latest effort is a look at what the white collar folks go through when they get laid off/fired from their relatively high paying jobs.It wasn't the story I thought it would be. I expected her to go through
For fans of Barbara Ehrenreich, this book is essentially a continuation of what she did in Nickel and Dimed. This time, instead of investigating the lower rungs of the minimum wage worker, she explores the world of the middle-class white- collar unemployed. As it turns out, the educated middle-class is increasingly being pushed downward to survival jobs, as outlined in Nickel and Dimed. People were baited into the idea that if you went to college youd get a good job: youre set. The switch comes
Part of the reason why Im a somewhat less than trustworthy reviewer is that writers really do get extra points from me for being able to write well and for being nice people. I mean, if I have enjoyed spending time with a writer over the couple of days it has taken me to read their book, well, that goes a long way towards me thinking that their book was wonderful and worthwhile. This book was wonderful and worthwhile and it was written by someone who can both write and be nice at the same time.
This lesser companion piece to Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" can only be described as a book-length exercise in turning lemons into lemonade. Her intent was to go undercover as she did in her other book but sadly didn't get very far.I feel like this book itself was a bit of a bait and switch because the cover seems to indicate that the author is going to uncover some truths about modern corporate culture. However the book turns out to be an extended job hunting narrative and an incomplete
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