Book Review: Had I Known by Barbara Ehrenreich

This was the third book in my three-week Barbara Ehrenreich binge of April 2020, and it’s the one I’d hand to someone who wants her whole range in a single volume. My Goodreads review still sums it up: some really great essays in here, highly highly recommend.

If you’re new to Ehrenreich: she spent her career reporting on class in America — poverty, work, healthcare, the middle-class terror of falling — with a wit most columnists would trade a kidney for. Had I Known pulls essays from across four decades of that career, including the reporting that grew into Nickel and Dimed.

What I Loved About Had I Known by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nobody else writes about the lack of class consciousness in America the way she does: poignant and hilarious in the same breath, sometimes in the same sentence. That combination is the whole magic trick. She walks you through something enraging, makes you laugh at the absurdity of it, and the argument lodges somewhere permanent. I came out the other side seeing this country differently, which is the highest compliment I can pay an essay collection.

What I Didn’t Love About Had I Known

The nature of any collection: if you go on to read her books cover to cover (do it), a few of these pieces will feel like previews of arguments she makes at full length elsewhere. That’s the only reason this is a 4 and not a 5 for me.

Final Thoughts on Had I Known

A must-read collection. If you’re building the syllabus: Nickel and Dimed first, Bait and Switch second, then this one — or honestly, start here and let the best essays send you to the books.

My final score: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? 👍 Yes!

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