This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation

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Macmillan, Apr 27, 2009 - Political Science - 256 pages

America in the 'aughts—hilariously skewered, brilliantly dissected, and darkly diagnosed by one of the country's most prominent social critics

Now in paperback, Barbara Ehrenreich's widely acclaimed This Land Is Their Land takes the measure of what we are left with after the cruelest decade in memory and finds lurid extremes all around. While members of the moneyed elite have bought up congressmen, many in the working class can barely buy lunch. While a wealthy minority obsessively consumes cosmetic surgery, the poor often go without health care for their children. And while the Masters of the Universe have thrown themselves into the casino economy, the less fortunate have been fed a diet of morality, marriage, and abstinence. With perfect satiric pitch, Ehrenreich reveals a country scarred by deepening inequality, corroded by distrust, and shamed by its official cruelty.

Full of wit and generosity, these reports from a divided nation—including new and unpublished essays—confirm once again that Ehrenreich is, as the San Francisco Chronicle proclaims, "essential reading."

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
2
This Land Is Their Land
12
The Class Analysis
15
Home Depots CEOSize Tip
18
CEOs vs Slaves
21
Banish the Bloated Overclass
24
Got Grease?
27
Class Struggle 101
32
Fake Your Way to the Top
126
Challenging the Workplace Dictatorship
129
New Frontiers in Child Abuse
132
French Workers Refuse to Be Kleenex
135
Truckers Protest the Resistance Begins
138
We Have Seen the Enemyand Surrendered
144
Gouging the Poor
147
The High Cost of Doing without Universal Health Care
151

Minimum Wage Rises Sky Does Not Fall
36
Could You Afford to Be Poor?
39
Desperately Seeking Stimulus
43
Smashing Capitalism
46
The Communist Manifesto Hits 160
50
Pension or Penitentiary?
56
Where the Fingers Pointing
58
The Cheapskate Warfare State
61
Are Illegal Immigrants the Problem?
65
The Shame Game
68
The New Cosby Kids
71
What America Owes Its Illegals
74
The Suicide Solution
77
Freshpersons Welcome to Debt
84
Party On
87
Are You Handy with Bedpans and Brooms?
90
Your Local NewsDateline Delhi
93
That Sinking Feeling
96
Whats So Great about Gated Communities?
99
Worlds Designated Shoppers Drop
103
Circuit City Slaughter
108
Blood in the Chutney
111
Workplace Bullies
114
Big Box Brother
119
Invasion of the Cheerleaders
123
Health Care vs the Profit Principle
154
Children Deserve Veterinary Care Too
157
Our Broken Mental Health System
160
Probably Not You
163
The Key to Energy Independence
166
A Society That Throws the Sick Away
169
Fear of Restrooms
174
Let Them Eat Wedding Cake
177
Opportunities in Abstinence Training
180
Owning Up to Abortion
184
How Banning Gay Marriage Will Destroy the Family
187
Do Women Need a Viagra?
190
A Uterus Is Not a Substitute for a Conscience
193
Whos Wrecking the Family?
198
Bonfire of the Princesses
201
The Secret of Mass Delusion
206
Who Moved My Ability to Reason?
209
All Together Now
214
The Faith Factor
217
Follies of Faith
221
Pastors Go Postal
226
Is It Safe to Go Back to Church?
230
God Owes Us an Apology
233
Rich Get Poorer Poor Disappear
237
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About the author (2009)

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) was a bestselling author and political activist, whose more than a dozen books included Nickel and Dimed, which the New York Times described as "a classic in social justice literature", Bait and Switch, Bright-sided, This Land Is Their Land, Dancing In The Streets, and Blood Rites. 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.