Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class

published	September 1990 by Perennial
binding	Paperback
isbn	0060973331 (isbn13: 9780060973339)
pages	304
literary awards	1989 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
description	A brilliant and insightful work that examines the insecurities of the middle class in an attempt to explain its turn to the right during the past two ...more [close] A brilliant and insightful work that examines the insecurities of the middle class in an attempt to explain its turn to the right during the past two decades, Fear of Falling traces the myths about the middle class to their roots in the ambitions and anxieties that torment the group and that have led to its retreat from a responsible leadership role. [close]
date added	12-30-06 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 101)

Marci rated it:

04/22/08

I'm surprised that I didn't read Fear of Falling a long time ago, but I was already familiar with many of its ideas which points to its pervasive influence since publication in 1989. Barbara Ehrenreich provides an overview of the history of America's middle class from the 1950s through the 1980s centered around the thesis that the middle class has suffered such severe setbacks to its assumed level of financial security over these decades that its members now constantly live with a "fear of ...more I'm surprised that I didn't read Fear of Falling a long time ago, but I was already familiar with many of its ideas which points to its pervasive influence since publication in 1989. Barbara Ehrenreich provides an overview of the history of America's middle class from the 1950s through the 1980s centered around the thesis that the middle class has suffered such severe setbacks to its assumed level of financial security over these decades that its members now constantly live with a "fear of falling" that influences their social, political, and professional choices. According to Ehrenreich, the result through the end of the 80s was a swing towards conservatism that invalidates the politically-charged concept of a liberal elite invested in increasing their own power and authority by promoting themselves as the saviors of society's underclasses.

The middle class remains in the same quandry in 2008 that Ehrenreich discussed in Fear of Falling since the educational barriers it erected at the turn of the 20th century to protect its status as a professional class now mean that membership
depends on signifigant educational achievement as well as financial investment. Simultaneously, as Ehrenreich predicted the American ideal of a middle-class lifestyle established in the 1950s has become less and less attainable since the income divide has opened up even further between the highest paid workers and the rest of the middle-class, discouraging young people further from the sacrifices required to reach the middle-classes. Meanwhile, due to the decades-long attack on liberalism, fewer positions are now avilable in the arenas of social services, the arts, and education, traditionally the province of the middle-class, and salaries for available positions have dropped in real wages.

It was an interesting experience for me to read this book as a relatively new member of the middle-class, struggling to reconcile my own professional choices with my political and social ideas. Ehrenreich's analysis made me conscious of why some of my choices seem harder than I would have expected before I got my degree, and achieved entry into the middle-class. I realized that (presumably like many Americans) the ideas I've carried around about a middle-class lifestyle coincide with a reality from the 1950s, one that our society (and our politicians) often points to as evidence of America's cultural superiority. As a middle-class American, it should be easy to afford a house, an SUV, two kids, college education for two kids, retirement, plus Red Sox tickets, a microwave, cable TV, and an ipod. If I'm not interested in financing all these things, I should be easily able to live where I want, travel as much as I want, even cut back on the number of hours that I work, as long as I am working as a middle-class professional.

Although Ehrenreich is known for her work on poverty, her Bait and Switched published in 2005 about downwardly-mobile professionals likewise addresses assumptions about how America's middle-class lives. Its educated professionals who may have suffered illness or been laid off, feel sold out by the American dream as much as steel and auto union workers in those outsourced industries. According to Ehrenreich, like a union job, a college education no longer guarantees life-long tenure in the middle-class. Corporate America leaves workers ousted from its fold to fend for themselves.

While this book established its thesis about the middle-class' fear of falling, I wish that Ehrenreich had taken more time to make the point she was driving towards by the ending chapter: that until members of the professional, middle-class recognize how financially-insecure they really are, nothing will change. I would have preferred to finish the book with a clearer sense of her action plan for change....less

Like this review? yes

title link
avg rating
small image
med image
large image

Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class

discuss this book

friend reviews (0)

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 101)

book data (includes all editions)

blog this book

popular shelves

other editions