Politics & Government
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Had I Known: Collected Essays
Winner of the 2021 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, HAD I KNOWN contains the most provocative, incendiary, and career-making pieces by bestselling author, essayist, political activist, and "veteran muckraker" Barbara Ehrenreich (The New Yorker).
A self-proclaimed "myth buster by trade," Barbara Ehrenreich has covered an extensive range of topics as a journalist and political activist, and is unafraid to dive into intellectual waters that others deem too murky. Now, Had I Known gathers the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that most highlight Ehrenreich's brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.
From Ehrenreich's award-winning article "Welcome to Cancerland," published shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, to her groundbreaking undercover investigative journalism in Nickel and Dimed, to her exploration of death and mortality in the New York Times bestseller, Natural Causes, Barbara Ehrenreich has been writing radical, thought-provoking, and worldview-altering pieces for over four decades. Her reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review, among others, while her essays, op-eds and feature articles have appeared in the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Time, the Wall Street Journal, and many more. Had I Known pulls from the vast and varied collection of one of our country's most incisive thinkers to create one must-have volume.
A self-proclaimed "myth buster by trade," Barbara Ehrenreich has covered an extensive range of topics as a journalist and political activist, and is unafraid to dive into intellectual waters that others deem too murky. Now, Had I Known gathers the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that most highlight Ehrenreich's brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.
From Ehrenreich's award-winning article "Welcome to Cancerland," published shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, to her groundbreaking undercover investigative journalism in Nickel and Dimed, to her exploration of death and mortality in the New York Times bestseller, Natural Causes, Barbara Ehrenreich has been writing radical, thought-provoking, and worldview-altering pieces for over four decades. Her reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review, among others, while her essays, op-eds and feature articles have appeared in the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Time, the Wall Street Journal, and many more. Had I Known pulls from the vast and varied collection of one of our country's most incisive thinkers to create one must-have volume.
Editorial Reviews
"Barbara Ehrenreich has committed her life to writing in defense of women, immigrants, people of color, people in the LGBTQ+ community, people who are homeless, minimum-wage workers, and those who can't even aspire to that luxury. Often prescient, her essays in this latest collection span several decades, explaining how we got to where we are today. A brave and brilliant thinker, she is most remarkable for reminding us how to be human in savage times. HAD I KNOWN is a dazzling tribute to Ehrenreich's unwavering commitment to that cause, her mastery of craft, and an expansive and exceptional career centering on the art of the essay."―PEN Awards
"The strange and frightening world we suddenly find ourselves living in is one Ehrenreich has warned about for decades...Her scathing take feels all but prophetic now."―The Washington Post
"Ehrenreich's work is appealing for its fiery focus on social injustice... striking for [its] foresight...[and] a reminder that Ehrenreich's writing is just plain fun to read, thanks to her acerbic wit and spirited grumpiness."―GQ
"[HAD I KNOWN is] a one-stop shop for fans of Ehrenreich's gimlet eye and informed outrage...A rewarding, illuminating tour de force."―Booklist
"[Ehrenreich's] significant research is conveyed in a wry, taut polemical style...[She] chillingly foresaw the devastation of labor and the middle class...and the increased cruelty of law enforcement toward the vulnerable...With such relevance to fractured late-capitalist America, Ehrenreich's work warrants renewed attention."―Kirkus Reviews
this argumentative and passionate collection...challenges the status quo throughout, while also including a healthy dose of self-questioning. She is wittily satirical at times...and bitterly Swiftian at others. Gripping."―Publishers Weekly
PREVIOUS PRAISE FOR BARBARA EHRENREICH
"Ehrenreich's sharp and fearless take on mortality privileges joy over juice fasts and argues that, regardless of how many hours we spend in the gym, death wins out. An incisive, clear-eyed polemic, Natural Causes relaxes into the realization that the grim reaper is considerably less grim than a life spent in terror of a fate that awaits us all."―Matthew Desmond...
"The strange and frightening world we suddenly find ourselves living in is one Ehrenreich has warned about for decades...Her scathing take feels all but prophetic now."―The Washington Post
"Ehrenreich's work is appealing for its fiery focus on social injustice... striking for [its] foresight...[and] a reminder that Ehrenreich's writing is just plain fun to read, thanks to her acerbic wit and spirited grumpiness."―GQ
"[HAD I KNOWN is] a one-stop shop for fans of Ehrenreich's gimlet eye and informed outrage...A rewarding, illuminating tour de force."―Booklist
"[Ehrenreich's] significant research is conveyed in a wry, taut polemical style...[She] chillingly foresaw the devastation of labor and the middle class...and the increased cruelty of law enforcement toward the vulnerable...With such relevance to fractured late-capitalist America, Ehrenreich's work warrants renewed attention."―Kirkus Reviews
this argumentative and passionate collection...challenges the status quo throughout, while also including a healthy dose of self-questioning. She is wittily satirical at times...and bitterly Swiftian at others. Gripping."―Publishers Weekly
PREVIOUS PRAISE FOR BARBARA EHRENREICH
"Ehrenreich's sharp and fearless take on mortality privileges joy over juice fasts and argues that, regardless of how many hours we spend in the gym, death wins out. An incisive, clear-eyed polemic, Natural Causes relaxes into the realization that the grim reaper is considerably less grim than a life spent in terror of a fate that awaits us all."―Matthew Desmond...
Readers Top Reviews
Paul EcklerErin
“Had I Known: Collected Essays,” by Barbara Ehrenreich, Hachette Book Group, New York. This 364-page hardback is that of a prolific, professional writer. The book lists 19 previous titles. Ehrenreich is best known for Nickeled and Dimed, a NY Times Best Seller. She went underground to report on minimum wage jobs as a waitress or hotel maid. She also covered professionals job searches and numerous women’s issues. She has a PhD in immunology and comes from a union household. She is a keen observer of the human condition. Her passion for sociology leans to the left. Ehrenreich introduces us to the life of the professional writer. Many survive as free lance writers selling papers to magazines and newspapers. The steady decline in print publications has caused many layoffs. Often they try their hand at free lancing. Meanwhile the number of buyers is shrinking and budgets are more limited. Survival becomes increasingly difficult. Book authors can do well. Writing can take years of research, but a successful book that sells millions can be very profitable. The current volume is a collection of 40 articles by Ehrenreich–some dating back to 1984. Some are brief two or three pages; others are extensive. They are collected into six sections: Haves and Have-Nots; Health; Men; Women; God, Science, and Joy; and Bourgeois Blunders. As you might expect, some from those who write to eat are a bit shallow. Others are perceptive. The first one, Nicked and Dimed, the article later expanded into a book, is one of the best. Another, “Welcome to Cancerland,” tells her inside story as a survivor of breast cancer. A thought provoking one is “What Abu Ghraib Taught Me.” During the war in Iraq, prisoners in Abu Ghraib were abused. Some were forced to pile up naked. Ehrenreich notes that three of the seven soldiers charged were women. Given the opportunity, women in the military try to fit in, but must they abandon their own principles of conduct? It is not enough to assimilate into the world created by men. “We need to create a world worth assimilating into.” A few quotes– If you ever need money go to a poor man. She cites Bridges Out of Poverty by Ruby K. Payne. To succeed, the poor must abandon their dysfunctional culture and emulate the goal oriented middle class. “Excess white working-class deaths are those of “despair,” and some of the obvious causes are economic.” Citing Paul Krugman. Desegregation caused working-class whites to support “George Wallace and his many white pseudo-populists successors down to Donald Trump.” “Working class whites are now regularly portrayed as moronic while blacks are hyperarticulate, street-smart and sometimes wealthy.” “It’s easy for the liberal intelligentsia to feel righteous in their disgust for lower-class white racism. Meanwhile whole professions hav...
CJA
Ehrenreich's essays on the working poor (Nickeled and Dimed) and on the American response to cancer (Welcome to Cancer Land) are two of the best essays I've ever read. There are absolute classics, worth buying the book to read. The other essays are quite good as well, with Ehrenreich having a great skill and sense of humor in eviscerating American Culture.
WU.Mary Hesse
The perfect example of a book with a strong centerpiece essay surrounded by, at times, meandering filler. For instance, her essays on poverty, especially "Nickel-and-Dimed" are particularly searing and worth the price of the book; it's outstanding. The rest, however, have moments of brilliance enveloped in otherwise trite observations. Worth a try.
Kindle
This book contains articles written from 1986 to 2019. What is very apparent is that things are not getting better. The poor are getting poorer, some Americans are becoming more cruel as they fear change, and so much just doesn't work as it should. It's too bad the people who really need to read this book won't. They are too busy deny and depriving: denying the truth about the 2020 elections and depriving every person except straight white Republican Christians of their rights and freedoms.
Le Grincheux
In this time of political hallucination it is reassuring and comforting to read these vignettes of the American experience seen through the eyes of a superb writer, progressive thinker and realist.
