Families today are squeezed on every side—from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible.

In her book Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America, Alissa Quart, executive editor of the IPS incubated and fiscally sponsored Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects—from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses—have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite.

Squeezed was just chosen by Time as one of the Best Books of the Summer.

In conversation with IPS board member Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, Alissa Quart will shed clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. This event is free to attend with no reservation required. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

Get more information.