Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America – The Middle Class Crisis of Childcare, Employment, and Hope - Softcover

Quart, Alissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062412264 ISBN 13: 9780062412263

Publisher: Ecco, 2019

Synopsis

One of TIME’s Best New Books to Read This Summer

“Brilliant—a keen, elegantly written, and scorching account of the American family today. Through vivid stories, sharp analysis and wit, Quart anatomizes the middle class’s fall while also offering solutions and hope.” 
   — Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

Families today are squeezed on every side—from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible.

Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects—from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses—have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite.

Interlacing her own experience with close-up reporting on families that are just getting by, Quart reveals parenthood itself to be financially overwhelming, except for the wealthiest. She offers real solutions to these problems, including outlining necessary policy shifts, as well as detailing the DIY tactics some families are already putting into motion, and argues for the cultural reevaluation of parenthood and caregiving.

Written in the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich and Jennifer Senior, Squeezed is an eye-opening page-turner. Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, it casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. It will make readers think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors.

About this title

About the Author

Alissa Quart is the author of four previous books of nonfiction, including Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America and Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, and two books of poetry, most recently Thoughts and Prayers. She is the executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and has written for many publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Time. Her honors include an Emmy Award, an SPJ Award, and Nieman Fellowship. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.

From the Back Cover

Families today are squeezed on every side—from nearly unaffordable housing, education, and childcare costs to stagnant wages and the rise of the gig economy. For this generation, attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become nearly impossible. 

Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, Squeezed casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive. It will make readers think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062412264
• ISBN 13: 9780062412263
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336