Research Paper on:
Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and Michael Zweig's Working Class Majority

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
A number of authors have added insight into class and power in America. To of the most interesting of these are Michael Zweig and Barbara Ehrenreich. Each  targets the latter half of the 1990s to present an expose of a societal situation which they find unacceptable. Both are concerned with the definition of class in America  and the societal factors which interact to define the respective classes. While Zweig approaches the problems of class in America from a statistical perspective Ehrenreich takes a slightly different  approach. Both of these authors are certainly well-qualified for their respective interpretations of class in America. Zweig, a social economist,  sees the definition of class in accordance with income an almost useless pursuit. Most Americans, under this definition, would fall into the so-called middle class". In his book  "The Working Class Majority: Americas Best Kept Secret" Zweig proposes instead that class be defined on the basis of power rather than money.  A journalist by occupation, Ehrenreich decided to get more personal with the question of class in America. In "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America"  Ehrenreich takes on a new identity to secure work in the blue collar workforce fulfilling duties ranging from those of a hotel maid, to a waitress in Florida, to a  janitor and nurses aid in a nursing home in Main, to a Wal-Mart employee in Minnesota. Each of these authors provide interesting insight into the plight of the American  worker. Although they employee a different tact from one another, the picture each reveals is startling similar. The poor and less powerful in America have an extremely tough