Remembering Barbara Ehrenreich

The Life and Work of a Tenacious Journalist

I'm an obsessive. When I get a problem, a question in my mind, it can take me over.

Renowned journalist and activist Barbara Ehrenreich passed away on September 8 at 81 years old. The author of over twenty books, she was probably best known for her 2001 memoir Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. The bestseller was based on her three-month experiment of trying to make a living on minimum-wage jobs. She provided an insider's account of the difficulties faced by low-wage workers in the US. To people who praised her for undertaking this challenge, she said: "Millions of people do this kind of work every day for their entire lives. Haven't you noticed them?"

Early Life and Education

It was a very big principle in my upbringing that you should respect everybody's work. The street sweeper. Everybody. You should never look down on anybody for their work.

Barbara Alexander was born on August 26, 1941 in Butte Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue-collar mining town." Her mother was a homemaker. Her father worked as a copper miner, but went on to get an advanced degree, eventually moving into corporate roles. Ehrenreich describes her parents as having been "strong union people" and says her family often talked about social issues such as racial injustice. In her memoir Living With a Wild God, Ehrenreich explores her own quest, beginning in childhood, to learn the truth about science, religion, and the human condition.

After graduating from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Ehrenreich went on to earn a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University in New York. This was where she met her first husband, John Ehrenreich.

Writing as Activism

I didn't want to be an author; I wanted to be a scientist. Not that I didn't love literature, but I couldn't distinguish it from reading, and reading was already my default activity, almost like breathing.

In 1970, Ehrenreich gave birth to her daughter Rosa in a public clinic in New York. She was less than impressed with the care she received saying, "They induced my labor because it was late in the evening and the doctor wanted to go home. I was enraged. The experience made me a feminist."

In fact, Ehrenreich's anger over social and political issues seems to have been the impetus for her career as an author. After cowriting two books with her then-husband—one on anti-Vietnam War activism, and the other, American healthcare—she quit her day job to become a full-time writer, becoming a regular contributor in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, and The New Republic. Had I Known is a collection of articles and essays she wrote over the years. The book offers a great overview of her brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.

A Relentless Curiosity

I first started asking big questions when I was 12, and by big questions, I mean, 'Why are we here? What is this business? We're alive for a few short decades and then poof, we're out of here.'

Over the years, the themes of war and healthcare continued to be topics Ehrenreich explored on her own in books like:

• Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War
• Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer

After the success of Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich founded the Economic Hardship Reporting Project with one main purpose: Support immersive reporting on the working poor. Her 2005 book, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, continues her investigation into the ways in which many American workers are overworked and undercompensated, with little chance to get ahead.

Examining Human Connection (and Division)

I'm interested in what bonds people together. You know, what brings us together in good ways? And there's not a lot known about that.

In 2007, Ehrenreich published Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy. The book draws on a wealth of history and anthropology to uncover the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Ehrenreich argues that in recent centuries, this festive tradition has been repressed, cruelly and often bloodily. But she maintains that the celebratory impulse is too deeply ingrained in human nature ever to be completely extinguished.

The following year, Ehrenreich demonstrated her trademark ability to pivot with the widely acclaimed This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation. With perfect satiric pitch, these essays reveal a country scarred by deepening inequality, corroded by distrust, and shamed by its official cruelty.

As the New York Times stated in the title for the 2020 review of Had I Known, "Barbara Ehrenreich Contains Multitudes." The author seemingly never shied away from a new avenue of interest and discovery. She once said she believed her job as a journalist was to shed light on the unnecessary pain in the world. With a boldly unapologetic voice, she shined a light on social inequality and injustice. She will certainly be missed.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to connect with a community of readers, catch up on literary news, and get book recommendations.

Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon