Waging a Living
2005 film
Waging a Living is a 2004 documentary film that addresses the issue of the American dream and whether or not hard work will invariably improve your condition. Examining the lives of four Americans in California and the Northeast who work full-time jobs but are still having trouble making ends meet.
Waging a Living was produced and directed by Roger Weisberg and aired on PBS in 2006 as part of its Point of View series. It was met with high critical acclaim, winning Best Documentary at the New Jersey Film Festival and receiving a 92% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Waging a Living” enters the record as 2005 film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Waging, Living and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Waging a Living” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Waging, Living and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7959574. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 2006.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Waging a Living”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Waging a Living primary sources, Waging a Living archive and Waging research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Waging a Living”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Waging a Living” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.