Barbara Ehrenreich's latest book, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, builds on the success of her 2001 bestseller Nickel and Dimed.
In that book, Ehrenreich focused on blue-collar workers, immersing herself in low-wage jobs to document how many people work and live.
Bait and Switch relies on a similar approach to investigate white-collar unemployment, as Ehrenreich went "undercover" by pretending to be a public relations professional looking for work. She says she found a world of hopeless people with few safety nets.
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