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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amazing Grace'
The children in this book defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented by the media. Tender, generous and often religiously devout, they speak with eloquence and honesty about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them.
The book does not romanticize or soften the effects of violence and sickness. One fourth of the child-bearing women in the neighborhoods where these children live test positive for HIV. Pediatric AIDs, life-consuming fires and gang rivalries take a high toll. Several children die during the year in which this narrative takes place.
A gently written work, Amazing Grace asks questions that are at once political and theological. What is the value of a child's life? What exactly do we plan to do with those whom we appear to have defined as economically and humanly superfluous? How cold -- how cruel, how tough -- do we dare be? [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amazing Grace : The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation'
The author of Savage Inequalities, a New York Times best-seller, and Rachel and Her Children, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, tells the stories of a handful of children who have--through the love and support of their families and dedicated community leaders--not yet lost their battle with the perils of life in America's most hopeless, helpless, and dangerous neighborhoods. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'America: What Went Wrong?'
Asking the question, "what went wrong," two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors present a sweeping critique of the last two decades of American history, concluding that short-sighted greed in business and government has undermined the American dream. Original. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America's Future'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bait And Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream'
Questions for Barbara Ehrenreich
Through over three decades of journalism and activism and over a dozen books, Barbara Ehrenreich has been one of the most consistent and imaginative chroniclers of class in America, but it was her bestselling 2001 book, Nickel and Dimed, a undercover expose of the day-to-day struggles of the working poor, that has been the most influential work of her career. Now, with Bait and Switch, she has gone undercover again, this time as a middle-aged professional trying to get a white-collar job in corporate America. We asked her a few questions about what she found:
Amazon.com: Your previous book, Nickel and Dimed, became a blockbuster bestseller with a classic "there but for the grace of God go I" liberal message just when the general political mood of the country seemed to be going in a very different direction. Why do you think it struck such a chord? What sorts of reactions have you gotten to it over the past four years?
Barbara Ehrenreich: A lot of Nickel and Dimed readers are people who regularly inhabit the low-wage work world, and many of them write to tell me that the book affirmed their experience and made them feel less alone and ignored. Other readers though, are affluent people who write to say I opened their eyes to a world they'd been unaware of. For those people, I think one appealing feature of Nickel and Dimed is that it's a personal narrative that gives them a look at lives lived at the margins of their own. The most gratifying response has been from people who tell me the book inspired them to become activists for things like a living wage or affordable housing.
Amazon.com: At what point did you realize that your new book, Bait and Switch, in which you went undercover again, this time to tell a story of working in corporate America, was instead becoming one of not working in corporate America? Is that the story you expected to tell?
Ehrenreich: My initial aim was not "to tell a story of working in corporate America" but to try to understand the human underside of corporate America--the job insecurity, the constant layoffs and downsizings that now occur even in the best of times. I expected to get a job and hence an inside view, but I always knew that that would be very difficult. After about 4-5 months of job searching, I began to get seriously discouraged, but I also came to understand that a fruitless search is in fact a very common experience. After all, today 44 percent of the long-term unemployed are white collar folks--an unusually high percentage. It's their world I entered, and their story that I tell in Bait and Switch.
Amazon.com: For someone with a white-collar career, you didn't have much experience in corporate culture before you attempted to join it for this book. What surprised you the most about what you found?
Ehrenreich: What surprised me most, right from day one of my job search, was the surreal nature of the job searching business. For example, everyone, from corporations to career coaches, relies heavily on "personality tests" which have no scientific credibility or predictive value. One test revealed that I have a melancholy and envious nature and, for some reason, was unsuited to be a writer! And what does "personality" have to do with getting the job done, anyway? There's far less emphasis on skills and experience than on whether you have the prescribed upbeat and likeable persona. I kept wondering: Is this any way to run a business? I was also surprised--and disgusted--by the constant victim-blaming you encounter among coaches, at networking events for the unemployed, and in the business advice books. You're constantly told that whatever happens to you is the result of your attitude or even your "thought forms"--not a word about the corporate policies that lead to so much turmoil and misery.
Amazon.com: You seemed to make much closer ties with your fellow workers in Nickel and Dimed than you did on the white-collar job hunt. What was different this time?
Ehrenreich: You're right--there is a difference. But it's not so much a matter of personalities as it is about two different worlds. There's a lot of camaraderie in the blue-collar world I entered in Nickel and Dimed. People help each other and look out for each other; they laugh together--often at the managers. The white-collar world doesn't encourage camaraderie, far from it. There it's all about competition and fear--of losing one's job, for one thing. Other people are seen as sources of contacts or tips, at best; as competitors or rivals, at worst. And among the unemployed add shame and a sense of personal failure, the constant message that it's all your own fault. All this discourages any solidarity with others or real openness.
Amazon.com: God forbid anyone would come to your book as a guide for finding a white-collar job, but what advice would you give to someone in the shoes you put yourself in: a middle-aged professional woman, in fear of falling irrevocably out of touch with the world of the regularly employed?
Ehrenreich: You don't think I'd make a good career coach? OK, but I have three pieces of advice for the middle-aged, middle-class job seeker anyway:
One, be very careful how you spend your money and time. Since the mid-90s, a whole industry has sprung up to help--or, depending on your point of view, prey upon--white-collar job seekers. The "professionals" in this business are usually entirely unlicensed and unregulated. Also, watch out for events billed as "networking" opportunities that really have another agenda--like recruiting you into expensive coaching or proselytizing you into a particular religion.
Two, don't count on the internet job sites to find you a job or even an interview. On any of these sites, your resume will be competing with hundreds of thousands of others, and most large companies today don't even bother reading online resumes; they have computer programs scan them for keywords (and you won't know what those keywords are.)
Three, and most important: stop believing that it's your own fault. That's the first step to recognizing the common problems facing white-collar workers and responding to them. I'd be thrilled if this book, like Nickel and Dimed, also inspires readers to get involved and become active in efforts to make life a little easier for the growing numbers of people who are unemployed, underemployed, or anxiously employed. What could they do? Lobby for universal health insurance that's not tied to a job, for example. Fight for extended unemployment benefits. Raise their voices to complain about corporate tax breaks and subsidies that are justified in terms of "job creation" but often go to companies that are busy laying people off. One major reason job loss is so catastrophic is that we just don't have much of a safety net in this country. That has to change, and who's going to make it change, if not people like those I met in Bait and Switch? I've got a new website, barbaraehrenreich.com, and I'd like to hear from readers--both their stories and their ideas for how to take action.
Classic Ehrenreich ![]() Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America | ![]() Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class | ![]() Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War |
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Choice, Growth & Development: Emerging & Enduring Issues'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Class'
In Class Paul Fussell explodes the sacred American myth of social equality with eagle-eyed irreverence and iconoclastic wit. This bestselling, superbly researched, exquisitely observed guide to the signs, symbols, and customs of the American class system is always outrageously on the mark as Fussell shows us how our status is revealed by everything we do, say, and own. He describes the houses, objects, artifacts, speech, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from the top to the bottom and everybody -- you'll surely recognize yourself -- in between. Class is guaranteed to amuse and infuriate, whether your class is so high it's out of sight (literally) or you are, alas, a sinking victim of prole drift [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Class: A Guide Through the American Status System'
In Class Paul Fussell explodes the sacred American myth of social equality with eagle-eyed irreverence and iconoclastic wit. This bestselling, superbly researched, exquisitely observed guide to the signs, symbols, and customs of the American class system is always outrageously on the mark as Fussell shows us how our status is revealed by everything we do, say, and own. He describes the houses, objects, artifacts, speech, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from the top to the bottom and everybody -- you'll surely recognize yourself -- in between. Class is guaranteed to amuse and infuriate, whether your class is so high it's out of sight (literally) or you are, alas, a sinking victim of prole drift. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Communist Manifesto'
"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Communist Manifesto'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document'
What is globalization? Here is one of the best answers. It is the constant revolutionizing of production and the endless disturbance of all social conditions. It is everlasting uncertainty. Everything fixed and frozen is swept away, and all that is solid melts into air. Yes, you have read this before. It is from The Communist Manifesto, by Messrs. Marx and Engels.The New York Times
Here, at last, is an authoritative introduction to historys most important political document, with the full text of The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.
This beautifully organized and presented edition of The Communist Manifesto is fully annotated, with clear historical references and explication, additional related texts, and a glossary that will bring the text to life for students, as well as the general reader.
Since it was first written in 1848, the Manifesto has been translated into more languages than any other modern text. It has been banned, censored, burned, and declared dead. But year after year, the text only grows more influential, remaining required reading in courses on philosophy, politics, economics, and history.
Apart from Charles Darwins Origin of Species, notes the Los Angeles Times, the Manifesto is arguably the most important work of nonfiction written in the 19th century. The Washington Post calls Marx an astute critic of capitalism. Writing in The New York Times, Columbia University Professor Steven Marcus describes the Manifesto as a masterpiece with enduring insights into social existence.
The New Yorker recently described Karl Marx as The Next Thinker for our era. This book will show readers why.
Phil Gasper is a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University in northern California. He writes extensively on politics and the philosophy of science and is a frequent contributor to CounterPunch.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Novels and Stories'
From ruined Louisiana plantations to bustling, cosmopolitan New Orleans, Kate Chopin wrote with unflinching honesty about propriety and its strictures, the illusions of love and the realities of marriage, and the persistence of a past scarred by slavery and war. Her stories of fiercely independent women, culminating in her masterpiece The Awakening (1899), challenged contemporary mores as much by their sensuousness as their politics, and today seem decades ahead of their time. Now, The Library of America collects all of Chopin's novels and stories as never before in one authoritative volume.
The explosive novel At Fault (1890) centers on a love triangle between a strong-willed young widow, a stiff St. Louis businessman, and the man's alcoholic wife. In the story collections Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897), Chopin transforms the local color sketch into taut, perfectly calibrated tales of post-Civil War bayou culture. In The Awakening, the now-classic novel that scandalized many of her contemporaries and effectively ended her writing career, Chopin tells the story of a restless, unsatisfied woman who embarks on a quixotic search for fulfillment.
The volume also includes all the stories not collected by Chopin, including those meant for "A Vocation and a Voice," a projected volume that her publisher canceled in 1900, and three stories that were found in 1992 in a long-lost cache of Chopin's papers. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Development and Underdevelopment: The Political Economy of Global Inequality'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Discours Sur L'Origine Et Les Fondements De L'Inegalite Parmi Les Hommes'
Qu'y a-t-il de naturel en l'homme ? Jean-Jacques Rousseau, dans son Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes, publié en 1755, imagine l'humanité dans sa condition primitive, à une époque où elle ne vivait encore que d'après sa constitution première. Le tableau qu'il dresse de cet état de nature originel fait ressortir l'existence de différences physiques mais d'aucune distribution inégale de droits entre les hommes. C'est l'institution sociale et l'invention du droit qui fera naître les inégalités. Rousseau nous raconte l'enchaînement des circonstances qui dut conduire le genre humain à s'éloigner de son heureuse condition originelle et à devoir recourir à l'autorité d'un État pour sauvegarder la vie et la liberté de chacun.
Au cours de l'histoire, l'homme se socialise, apprend à parler, à aimer ; il s'humanise en s'éloignant de sa première condition, simple, heureuse mais quasi animale. Une manière pour Rousseau de formuler la contradiction de la condition humaine : historique, insatisfaite, mais aussi hantée par le rêve de la nature et du bonheur.
Un texte d'une grande éloquence qui ne peut que toucher son lecteur. --Emilio Balturi [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Discourse On Inequality'
In "A Discourse on Inequality", Rousseau sets out to demonstrate how the growth of civilization corrupts man's natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power and social privilege. Contending that primitive man was equal to his fellows, Rousseau believed that as societies become more sophisticated, the strongest and most intelligent members of the community gain an unnatural advantage over their weaker brethren, and that constitutions set up to rectify these imbalances through peace and justice in fact do nothing but perpetuate them. Rousseau's political and social arguments in the "Discourse" were a hugely influential denunciation of the social conditions of his time and one of the most revolutionary documents of the eighteenth-century. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Discourse on the Origin of Inequality'
In Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau argues that inequalities of rank, wealth, and power are the inevitable result of the civilizing process. His sweeping account of humanity's social and political development epitomizes the innovative boldness of the Enlightenment, and it is one of the most provocative and influential works of the eighteenth century. This new translation by prize-winning translator Franklin Philip includes all of Rousseau's own notes, and Patrick Coleman's introduction builds on recent key scholarship, considering particularly the relationship between political and aesthetic thought. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Du Contrat Social'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Durable Inequality'

› Find signed collectible books: 'Economic Apartheid In America: A Primer On Economic Inequality & Insecurity'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Egalia's Daughters'
Welcome to the land of Egalia, where gender roles are topsy-turvy as "wim" wield the power and "menwim" light the home fires. This re-telling of the prototypical coming-of age novel will have readers laughing out loud and wondering who should prevail: poor Petronius, who wants more than anything to cruise the oceans as a seawom; or his powerful and protective mother Director Bram, who rules her family with an authoritarian righteousness. But for better or for worse, as the masculist party begins to organize and protest, the landscape of Egalia threatens to change forever. More than just a humorous romp, Egalia's Daughters poses the provocative question of whether the culprit in gender subjugation is gender itself or power-no matter who wields it. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Contrato Social / the Social Agreement'
Segun Rousseau, los hombres ceden mediante el contrato social el derecho ilimitado a todo cuanto les apetece. El clásico de este maestro en una edición espectacular y accesible. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequality That Limits Our Lives'
Should we care that wealth in the United States is unequally distributed and getting more so every year? Should we worry that America's most wealthy, in just a generation, have more than doubled their share of the nation's wealth? Our nation's highest leaders certainly don't think so. They either ignore, or dismiss, the huge gaps in income and wealth that divide us. But these gaps, author Sam Pizzigati shows in his compelling new book, are undermining nearly every aspect of our lives, from our health to our happiness, from our professions to our pastimes, from our arts to our Earth. Greed and Good both reveals the horrific price we pay for tolerating inequality and dissects the case for greed, the old saws that apologists for inequality regularly trot out to justify the mammoth concentrations of wealth that tower all around us. These concentrations, Greed and Good argues, can and must be cut down to democratic size. And Greed and Good, in clear-headed and fascinating prose, even shows how.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Cassette Travel Bag is a complete and unabridged reading by Stephen Fry on six cassettes, contained in a travel box. A CD travel bag is also available.
Just when it seems that there cannot possibly be another twist to the Harry Potter tale, Stephen Fry dons his haughtiest and naughtiest tones to bring Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to vibrant life on audio. Harry Potter has spent the first 10 years of his life at the mercy of the dreadful Dursleys--the aunt, uncle and fat, spoilt brat of a cousin who reluctantly gave him a home after the death of his mother and father. But on his 11th birthday Harry discovers that he is no ordinary boy, and despite the best efforts of his hideous relatives he escapes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to begin his new life as a trainee wizard. And the rest, as they say, is history...
As Harry battles against the evils thrown in his path, Stephen Fry injects the proceedings with a wry, dry and extremely contagious humour that perfectly suits the tale, wringing out the best in Harry and his cohorts as they get to grips with their new lives at the sharp end of Hogwarts. Fry's innate upper-class drone is perfectly suited to the telling of this most magical tale, cracking into the high-pitched squawking of Hermione the swat, or the gentle tones of the firm but fair Dumbledore, or the evil sniping of slimey Snape at precisely the right moments.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fine story and much has been written about its success, but until you have heard Fry's cracking reading of this most magical of stories then you simply haven't lived. As with any audio book, this one is perfect for car journeys and an ideal way of introducing reluctant readers to the magic that is Harry Potter. (Ages 9 and over) --Susan Harrison
Running time: 8 hrs 25 mins [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter Y La Piedra Filosofal / Harry Potter And the Sorcerer's Stone'
THIS EDITION IS INTENDED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Income Distribution and Economic Development: An Analytical Survey'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Inequality Reexamined'
In this deft analysis, Amartya Sen argues that the dictum "all men are created equal" serves largely to deflect attention from the fact that we differ in age, gender, talents, physical abilities as well as in material advantages and social background. He argues for concentrating on higher and more basic values: individual capabilities and freedom to achieve objectives. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'International Perspectives On Household Wealth'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Manifesto of the Communist Party'
"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Manifiesto Del Partido Comunista'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Meritocracy and Economic Inequality'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nature of Mass Poverty'
The Galbraith incisibeness, clarity, and wit are here brought to bear on the central aspects of the most important economic and social probelms of our time. The Nature of Mass Poverty proceeds from the author's conviction that most explanations of conditions in poor countries do not explain. They reflect, instead, the experience of the rich countries. Or they create cause out of cure. Capital and technical expertise being available from the rich countries, shortage of these becomes the cause of povery in the poor. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America'
Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.
As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.
So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'On the Origin of Inequality'
If we look at human society with a calm and disinterested eye, it seems, at first, to show us only the violence of the powerful and the oppression of the weak. The mind is shocked at the cruelty of the one, or is induced to lament the blindness of the other... -from the Preface Are such concepts of race, class, and wealth inherent to the human condition, or are they results of the development of "civilization"? One of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment, which laid the groundwork for the modern mind-set, argues that it is only with the creation of agriculture and urban society that inequalities formed. Controversy swirls around the text-some of today's thinkers continue to consider it profound; others contend that it relies on an unsupportable "noble savage" foundation. In either case, this 1752 is one of the greatest works of 18th-century philosophy. Swiss philosopher JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778) was a dramatic influence on the French revolution, 19th-century communism, and much modern political thought. His works include Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750), Discourse on Political Economy (1755), and The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right (1762). [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Other America: Poverty in the United States'
This powerful account draws on research by sociologists and economists to reveal the depth of the poverty crisis, analyzing why such "invisible" citizens as the elderly, children, and minorities are not given adequate opportunities. Originally published in 1962, Harrington's classic work on the plight of the poor in the midst of plenty remains all too relevant today. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Paying for Inequality: The Economic Cost of Social Injustice'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Perfectly Legal: the Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - AND CHEAT EVERYBODY ELSE'
Most Americans would agree that they are duty bound as beneficiaries of our democracy to pay taxes, and the majority of us do pay-exorbitantly. But what about those who do not pay their fair share? David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, here reveals how fairness and equity have eroded from the American tax system. Johnston describes in shocking detail the loopholes our government provides the "super rich"--from private individuals to profitable corporations-to hide their wealth, to defer or evade tax payments, and to pass the bill to law-abiding middle-class Americans. The loss in revenue "imposes a severe cost on honest taxpayers" through reduced services, increased federal debt, and a weight on the middle class that threatens to impede its ability to achieve upward social mobility.
Admitting the extreme complexity of our economy and by extension our tax code, Johnston points out that the very wealthy do, of course, pay taxes. However, because of shelters that allow them to understate most of their income, they pay little more on average than most Americans on the dollar. This is regressive, and unquestionably favors the superrich. Johnston includes examples of outrageous corporate malfeasance (such as companies that establish off-shore tax addresses) and exposes the tax benefits of the particularly loathsome practice made famous by Jack Welch, in which thousands of wage earners are laid off while a handful of executives are granted hundreds of millions of dollars through deferred compensation, company stock options, and lucrative retirement packages, all at stock holders' xpense. In addition to these offenses, he describes the tax evasion methods of those who simply defy the law and are emboldened by a beleaguered IRS that is too underfunded to serve as an effective deterrent to tax cheats. Johnston calls for a complete overhaul of the system. But because those who most benefit from these laws comprise the "donor class" that supports the government power structure, our prospects for reform remain very bleak. --Silvana Tropea [via]More editions of Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--And Cheat Everybody Else:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology And Unequal Riches'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order'
In this thought-provoking new collection of essays, Noam Chomsky examines democracy in theory vs. democracy in action. The brilliant thinker reveals how the political and economic principles that have prevailed are far removed from those that are popularly proclaimed.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many'
These wide-ranging interviews, from 1992 and 1993, cover everything from Bosnia and Somalia to biotechnology and nonviolence, with particular attention to the "Third Worldization" of the United States.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Reconsidering the East Asian Economic Model: What's Ahead for the Philippines'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rich Britain: The Rise and Rise of the New Super-wealthy'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools'
A searing, eye-opening exposé of the inequality built into America's public education system, written by Jonathan Kozol, the National Book Award-winning author of Death at an Early Age. Traveling the most blighted neighborhoods of our country, Kozol discovers a separate and unequal school system for America's less fortunate. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Social Contract'
In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate our desires to the interests of all, the general will. Some have seen in this the promise of a free and equal relationship between society and the individual, while others have seen it as nothing less than a blueprint for totalitarianism. The Social Contract is not only one of the great defences of civil society, it is also unflinching in its study of the darker side of political systems. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Theories of Social and Economic Justice'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Theories of the Mixed Economy'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Up the Learning Tree'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Watching China Change, 1976-1999'
Between May, 1976, while Mao was still alive, and 1997, when Deng Xioaping died, was a time of tremendous change in China: from the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" to the affluent eighties and nineties, from socialism to what looks like unrestrained capitalism, and from a mysterious country wrapped in isolation to one of the key players in modern international affairs. It's a dramatic story that involves a fifth of the human race and impinges on the rest.
"I am moved to get down on paper my memories and observations about my twenty-five year experience with China. Neither a eulogy nor an exposé, just as honest an account as I can make it of the China I saw and experienced." [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor'
Professor David S. Landes takes a historic approach to the analysis of the distribution of wealth in this landmark study of world economics. Landes argues that the key to today's disparity between the rich and poor nations of the world stems directly from the industrial revolution, in which some countries made the leap to industrialization and became fabulously rich, while other countries failed to adapt and remained poor. Why some countries were able to industrialize and others weren't has been the subject of much heated debate over the decades; climate, natural resources, and geography have all been put forward as explanations--and are all brushed aside by Landes in favor of his own controversial theory: that the ability to effect an industrial revolution is dependent on certain cultural traits, without which industrialization is impossible to sustain. Landes contrasts the characteristics of successfully industrialized nations--work, thrift, honesty, patience, and tenacity--with those of nonindustrial countries, arguing that until these values are internalized by all nations, the gulf between the rich and poor will continue to grow. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Welfare Realities: From Rhetoric to Reform'
Mary Jo Bane and David T. Ellwood examine the welfare system - its recipients, its providers and the many policy ideas surrounding it. Focusing on the AFDC Programme (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), they identify three models that have been used to explain "welfare dependency" and test them against an accumulating body of evidence, offering suggestions for identifying potential long-term recipients so that resources can be targeted to encourage self-sufficiency. Finally, they review policy options. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Le Deuxieme Sexe'
Volume II of Le Deuxime Sexe (Second Sex) by Simone de Beauvoir. In French. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Le Deuxieme Sexe Tome 1'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Distinction: Critique Sociale Du Jugement'
Analyse des relations entre les classes sociales et le goût, "un des enjeux les plus vitaux des luttes dont le champ de la classe dominante et le champ de production culturelle sont le lieu"; célèbre ouvrage du sociologue Pierre BOURDIEU, en trois parties: "Critique sociale du jugement de goût", "L'économie des pratiques" et "Goûts de classe et style de vie"; en annexes, méthodes, sources, données statistiques; index. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter a L'ecole Des Sorciers / Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'
Poche: 308 pages Editeur : Gallimard Jeunesse; Édition : N°899; Editions Gallimard Jeunesse, 1998 (septembre 1998) Collection : Folio junior Langue : Français Remarques : Petites traces d'usures [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal'
Harry es húerfano de padre y madre y vive con sus tíos odiosos y su primo insoportable y malcriado. Por suerte Harry puede ir a un colegio especial de magia. Ágil y divertida, esta novela entretiene a grandes y chicos. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harri Potter a Maen Yr Athronydd / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hali Bote Yo Mo Fa Shi / Harry Potter & the Sorcerers Stone'
Brand New [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Egalias Dtre'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hari Butor Wa Hajar Al-fayasuf / Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'
The Arabic Edition of the fascinating English thriller Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen'
KINDERBUECHER - ROWLING, J. K., Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen. 24. Aufl. Hamburg, Carlsen, 2000. 335 S. Farb. ill. OPbd. - Gutes Expl. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ancient Greek Edition'
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