Product Description: Our sharpest and most original social critic goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity.Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them...read more

Product Description: With 11.9 million undocumented residents in the United States and illegal entrants accounting for nearly half of the low-skilled foreign workforce, there is widespread agreement that the current U.S. immigration system is broken. Past reform agendas have emphasized strengthening border security, increasing the number of visas for foreign guest workers, and defining a path to legal residence for illegal immigrants already living in the country...read more

Product Description: Today's political controversy over immigration highlights the plight of the working class in this country as perhaps no other issue has recently done. The political status of immigrants exposes the power dynamics of the 'new working class,' which includes the former labor aristocracy, women, and people of color...read more

Product Description: About 34 million Americans—nearly 24 percent of the labor force—earn less than $8.70 an hour, not enough to keep a family of four out of poverty, even working full-time. Most of these workers lack a college degree, limiting their ability to get ahead in today’s labor market...read more

Product Description: Finding Jobs is an informative and wide-ranging inquiry into the issues raised by welfare reform. Although the research presented in this book demonstrates that it is possible to find jobs for people who have traditionally relied on public assistance, it also offers cautionary evidence that today's strong economy may mask underlying problems...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: In the post-World War II era, the U.S. government's full employment policy led to rapid mechanization of production by reducing the cost of financing investment. The mechanization of production displaced more blacks than whites because blacks were disproportionately unskilled...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)