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Barbara Ehrenreich

Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class Paperback – January 7, 2020

by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)

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A brilliant and insightful exploration of the rise and fall of the American middle class by New York Times bestselling author, Barbara Ehrenreich.

One of Barbara Ehrenreich's most classic and prophetic works, Fear of Falling closely examines the insecurities of the American middle class in an attempt to explain its turn to the right during the last two decades of the 20th century.

Weaving finely-tuned expert analysis with her trademark voice, Ehrenreich traces the myths about the middle class to their roots, determines what led to the shrinking of what was once a healthy percentage of the population, and how, in its ambition and anxiety, that population has retreated from responsible leadership.

Newly reissued and timely as ever, Fear of Falling places the middle class of yesterday under the microscope and reveals exactly how we arrived at the middle class of today.

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Twelve
Publication date

January 7, 2020
Dimensions

5.25 x 1.13 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1455543756
ISBN-13

978-1455543755
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) was a bestselling author and political activist, whose more than a dozen books include Natural Causes, Living with a Wild God, the award winning essay collection Had I Known, and Nickel and Dimed, which the New York Times described as “a classic in social justice literature.” An award-winning journalist, she frequently contributed to Harper's, The Nation, The New York Times, and TIME magazine. Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, when it was still a bustling mining town. She studied physics at Reed College and earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University. Rather than going into laboratory work, she got involved in activism, and soon devoted herself to writing her innovative journalism.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Twelve; Reprint edition (January 7, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1455543756
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1455543755
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.13 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #595,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #621 in Sociology of Class
- #2,032 in Essays (Books)
- #25,777 in Social Sciences (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 92 ratings

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BARBARA EHRENREICH is the author of fourteen books, including the bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She lives in Virginia, USA.

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4.7 out of 5

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J. Fitzpatrick

As advertised

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

The book arrived on time and in great condition.

Helpful

Jeffrey R. Myers

Incredibly prescient!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Difficult to believe this book was published in 1989! It remains a reliable guide to the problems facing the USA today. Its focus on class is key, along with the environmental limits on capitalism, even mentioning Donald Trump's role in our problems. Sounds like it was rather written in 2019! Highest recommendation!

5 people found this helpful

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W. Ross

Ehrenreich nails it -- again.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

Once again, Barbara Ehrenreich turns her x-ray eyes on the American scene and describes the systemic ills that are making it harder and harder to flourish in our political-economic-social system. Published almost a quarter-century ago (1990) the book has proved prophetic. She accurately foresaw the continuing siphoning of the nation's wealth into the coffers of the well-off, although perhaps she didn't see just how extreme it would be (who'd have thunk?) and she predicted the struggles and the shrinking of the middle class. Her clear vision helps explain what we've seen happening in the past half-century -- the increasing tendency of the middle and working classes to vote against their own interests by turning to the right in matters political. It's not just a political screed, although it's clear where her political sympathies lie, and her finely-tuned analysis of social and political issues -- class stereotyping, mindless consumerism, the political exploitation of class and cultural fears, the invention of "permissiveness" as a political weapon, the cynical use of cultural wedges -- is amazingly accurate, both as a work of cultural history and as a diagnosis of our current maladies.

22 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Well worth the read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

What can I say? I have loved every book she wrote and been a fan ever since Nickel and Dimed came out. Ehreinreich is a brilliant writer and the kind of practical no nonsense mind that we need in the world today.

5 people found this helpful

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Gremmy

Wonderful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

This was a very interesting book, and I hate that I had to buy it for class but I am glad I got the chance to read it.

4 people found this helpful

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Thomas D. Scipione

The truth hurts

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 7, 2001

Verified Purchase

Right on the money sad but true.Well researched and documented. Should make people think about the world we are creating. It's too bad the people who won't read this book are the ones that should. We take too much and give too little.

30 people found this helpful

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Jerry Reeve

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

Great book. Reading other books by her now.

2 people found this helpful

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Smallchief

Still relevant after all these years

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 3, 2004

I read "Fear of Falling" out of curiosity. Can a book published in 1989 about the American middle class still be relevant? Sadly -- for reasons that will be detailed below -- it still can be. The middle class in 2004 is still as selfish, self-seeking, and elitist as it was when Ehrenreich wrote this book. There are quaint features to the book. The author speaks indignantly of business executives earning $1 million per year -- a big salary in 1989, but chump change for the CEO of 2004.

Ehrenreich defines the middle class as the professional and managerial workers -- the doctors, lawyers, professors, and mid-level executives -- of our society. In 2004, members of the professional middle class would have incomes of at least $60,000 up to about $250,000 per year. They would comprise nearly one half of the American population. Over the middle class would be the rich, two or three percent of the population, and below would be the lower or working classes, comprising about one half of the population.

Ehrenreich provides a mini-history of the professional middle class from 1960 up till the late 1980s. What one sees over these three decades is increasing distance between the middle and the lower classes -- plus increasing disinterest in addressing problems of poverty and social injustice in the U.S. The middle class "is too driven by its own ambitions, too compromised by its own elite status, and too removed from those whose sufferings cry out most loudly for redress." She attributes the middle class's anxiety to "fear of falling" into the nether-world of Walmart workers and trailer park living. Her (vague) prescription for wholesome social change is expanded educational opportunity and removing "artificial barriers."

The trends Ehrenreich identifies in 1989 have not only continued but intensified. The distance between rich and poor, socially and economically, has increased. The professional middle class has lost much of what social conscience it once had and movement toward an equalitarian society, discernible in 1960, has been reversed. Is that a bad thing? I think so.

Smallchief

68 people found this helpful

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Wanderer75

Your employer isn't your friend.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

Reminds me of my youth. How people would shun 'friends' and family members who had become unemployed. The competition at school. Keeping up with the Joneses. The pressure to consume, consume, consume, even if it means getting into debt

One person found this helpful

irene reilly

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 30, 2015

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good

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