Barbara Ehrenreich (born August 26, 1941) is a social critic and essayist. Her book Nickel and Dimed (2002) was a national bestseller in the United States. She is a prolific journalist who peppers her writing with a sardonic sense of humor.

Ehrenreich attended Reed College, and later obtained a PhD in biology from The Rockefeller University in New York City. She eventually decided not to become a research scientist, however. She became involved in politics as an activist for social change.

From 1991 to 1997, she was a regular columnist of Time. Currently, Ehrenreich is regular columnist with The Progressive.

Ehrenreich has also written for the New York Times, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms, New Republic, Z Magazine, In These Times, Salon.com and other publications. In 2004, she wrote a guest column for one month for the New York Times while regular columnist Thomas Friedman was on leave writing a book.

She is the vice chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Books

Non-fiction

• Witches, Midwives, and Nurses (with Diedre English) (1973)
• The Hearts of Men (1987)
• Re-Making Love (with Elizabeth Hess and Gloria Jacobs) (1987)
• Fear of Falling (1989)
• For Her Own Good (with Diedre English) (1989)
• Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness (with Diedre English) (1991)
• The Mean Season (with Fred Block, Richard A. Cloward, and Frances Fox Piven) (1987)
• The Worst Years of Our Lives (1990)
• Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War (1991)
• The Snarling Citizen (1995)
• Nickel and Dimed (2002)
• Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy (with Arlie Hochschild and Arlie Russell Hochschild) (2003) ISBN 0805075097

Fiction

• Kippers Game (1994)

Essays

• "Welcome to Cancerland" (2001 National Magazine Award finalist)

External links

• Articles by Barbara Ehrenreich on Alternet
• Nickel and Dimed .net, additional information on the book