Worst Years of Our Lives

by Barbara Ehrenreich

Presents an offbeat look back at the 1980s that covers topics ranging from the bright side of nuclear war to feminism, couch potatoes, Yuppies, and televangelism

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Essays, History, Feminism, Humor, Sociology

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Barbara Ehrenreich was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and award-winning columnist and essayist and the author of 21 books. Ehrenreich was best known for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, a memoir of her three-month experiment surviving on a series of minimum-wage jobs. She was a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and the Erasmus Prize.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of articles Ehrenreich wrote in the 80’s covering a wide range of topics, but with a heavily political orientation. Democracy, feminism, the culture of the 80’s comes under her incisive analytical gaze, but she manages the job with a surprising amount of humor. I was not expecting that. The pieces have, in many instances, relevance to the 2000’s as well as the 1980’s. But the idolization of greed was newer then and the right-wingers had not yet made such a mess of the world or succeeded as well as dividing America into the haves and the wants. Much of what she wrote twenty years ago was quite prescient. It was a good read, not fab, but good.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

With humor this author examines the follies and foibles of the Reagan and Bush years, the 80's. But it's not all just fun. The deadly seriousness of our descent into madness during that time is rivaled only by what we are seeing today. Growing up and learning from our mistakes is not something we are good at doing.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

typical Barbara Ehrenreich - so not only do I agree completely with what she writes, but am laughing hysterically the entire time I am reading the essay. The book is a collection of essays written during the 80s, covering many topics: politics, greed, GWB, Nancy Reagan, yuppies, jogging, the rise of foodies etc...AND what is astonishing to me, so prescient for today. Come to think of it I would now say that the decade of the 80s set the foundation for how we live today, while I have read other books that say it is the 60s, then the 70s. I give up!
I would dare say things were pretty good for me in the 80s: I got married, started a family - two boys, raised a fantastic dog - Duffy, took great vacations, learned to drink martinis, but in all honesty the stage was being set for the current fiasco our country is experiencing; so indeed the essays are irreverent notes from a decade of greed! So typical Barbara and in the same vein of everything else she has written, doing her damndest to expose the dark side of America.

[Jelena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only that I‘m sharing views with Ehrenreich on number of things, from abortion to politics and feminism in general, but this is one perfect satire on (mostly) Reagan but also Bush era. Not that I‘ve lived in America in that period, but maybe precisely because of that, I find it so witty and serious to the bone at the same time. I‘m giving it 4 stars just because in this collection of columns it seems that some were corrected to fit the editor‘s demands and word count limits.

[Mickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The word "irreverent" has been used to describe this collection of short essays by Ehrenreich many times, but I don't think it's an accurate description. This book, which is a collection of essays written about the 1980's, is about the collision of two competing Weltanschauungs: the radical, histrionic ethos that was popular in the 1960's and the 1980's focus on money-making and conspicuous consumption embodied by so-called "yuppies". Ehrenreich is not boldly striking out on her own and slaying sacred cows (which is what comes to my mind when you mention the word "irreverent") as much as she is engaging in a drawn-out squabble with another popular (and, at the moment, ascendant) trend. I'm not saying that there isn't any interest or value in what she is writing about, but I wouldn't term it as irreverent. She is writing from a well-established position and is too entrenched in that point of view to be hailed primarily as an iconoclast. I don't think she evidences enough independence, nor do I think that Yuppies reached the popularity needed to elevate it into the position of accepted dogma.

That being said, Ehrenreich is a fine writer. It's a pity that she did not continue to publish more books of essays on contemporary issues. I think her talents are well suited to the short essay form. I have read her Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. Those books were much more reasoned and careful than this book. I think her more recent books are aimed at a more universal audience, and through this transition, much of her special appeal is lost. In this book, she speaks so much more with her own voice as opposed to approximating a more neutral tone. Her talents at haranguing the opposition are completely absent from her later books (although I think her peculiar obsession with the Yuppie's dedication to exercise was odd). Perhaps the difference can be explained by the difference in her chosen subjects; when writing about the down-and-outs, she has a more nuanced view than when concentrating on the "enemy". I think that her critique of the trends of the 1980's was more entertaining than enlightening. She wrote more as an angry, frustrated, disenfranchised radical blowing off steam than one who is trying to persuade or disseminate information. Ultimately, the book reminded me of an '80's sitcom "Head of the Class", which thought itself to be thought-provoking although it offered one opinion.

Looking over this review, I feel like I'm giving the wrong impression. I loved this book. It was enjoyable. Ehrenreich's abilities at using imagery are phenomenal. She offers interesting insights into the decade in question and into her own sensibilities. This book is absolutely a five star and should be read widely as an example of social critique.

[Gavin Volker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barb does it again. Good book but it's a compilation of some of her essays written in the late 1980s so sometimes I'd need to look stuff up to understand her references. Still good but I prefer her other essay compilation book, This Land Is Their Land, for that reason.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was both funny and terrifying. It is sad that nothing at all has changed in + or - 25 years except for the names.

[Hank Stuever · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first real taste of the brilliance of Barbara Ehrenreich.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very funny, written with biting sarcasm. Her take on Nancy Reagan is especially vicious, delicious, and accurate.

[Lyn Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Ehrenreich's at her best here in "Iranscam: Oliver North and the Warrior Caste" in which she examines the relationship between miltarism and misogyny. Her second-best here is the more not-serious-but-serious-too "Put on a Happy Face" where she accuses the American media of "censoring" because an editor told her to "do your thing on poverty, but be sure to make it upscale." The rest of her work collected here is uneven, trying to treat the frivolous as serious and the serious as frivolous and sometimes not being successful with either.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read the longer books where Ehrenreich expands upon the ideas in these essays, so can't compare this book to those. For me it was a great essay collection, full of what today you might call "hot takes" about gender, work, and Reaganism as it happened. Only other book I've read of hers is "Bright-sided," and while that book is more impressively researched and probably more important, I think I enjoyed this essay collection more.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love her, she's sooooo sarcastic!

She shredded the 80's (& Nancy Reagan in full force) in insightful, forward thinking, humorous (usually around 5 page) essays.

I loved "How you can save Wall Street", loved her solution to the (fake) man shortage- date younger men!

Sad to see how much is still relevant.

I had read Nickel and Dimed and enjoyed it but this displayed her vicious humor so well!

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes still dated, but interesting as 1980s cultural politics over issues such as women in the workplace, deindustrialization, know-nothing right wing politicians, or delayed marriages and rising divorce rates are still being reheated for consumption today.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some essays are over thirty years old and nothing changes

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

30 plus years on these essays a, for the most part, still relevant. Or...how little we have advanced in these 30 plus years!

[Rise Gamble · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know you thought you knew about our economic history. At least I thought I did. I was wrong.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious. Serious satire. Some of my favorite essays in this include "Premature Pragmatism", "The Cult of Busyness," "Language Barrier" and "Blocking The Gates of Heaven."

Ehrenreich writes so wonderfully of a time of change and predicts the 2010's world in this 1991 book. She saw the trends. What was satire is sometimes reality now. I don't think she could have envisioned the Bush Jr. era at the time. Anyways I am interested in finding more recent works of hers. These essays still feel viable, there are still threads of the reality she wished not slip away in our society- they just need the support and the poking prodding humor of people likeEhrenreich to show that the one's to be looked down upon are those in that damned rat-race.

[SC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Barbara Ehrenreich for her "meanness," as one blurber put it, as much as her bluntness, and Worst Years had plenty. Of course, everything is dated today, but I still found the anti-Nancy Reagan & jogging tirades to be hilarious. Ehrenreich's blue-collar rage is always funnier than anyone else's, as it's actually legitimate (her father worked in the Montana mines).

[Shiloh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a series of satirical essays written in the mid to late eighties. Even though she goes way left, this author is such a great thinker and so funny that I can deal with a little (okay a lot) of knee jerk liberal bias. And her other books are great too!

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

not her best

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually funny, and occasionally insightful. More concern trolling than I usually go for

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

“this is a great book to read because it’s vitriolic and short.” -me, 1/2way through

[Carrie]

essays