Literary feuds often feel sad and empty, but intelligent, measured critiques advance human knowledge and get people thinking. Although not a response to the recent Atlantic piece about writer John D’Agata’s take/mistake on the essay form, this piece by another essayist adds many welcome dimensions to this ongoing debate around the definition and nature of […]
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Bruce Springsteen’s Asbury Park
After an unremarkable stint at Ocean County Community College, [Bruce Springsteen] relocated to Asbury Park, a gritty coastal community that scarcely resembled the glitzy seaside resort of its earlier days. By that time, jet travel and air conditioning had made distant locations like California, Florida, and the Caribbean more attractive to local vacationers. Deeply segregated and […]
Posted inNonfiction, Op-Ed, Standout, Story, Uncategorized
What We Saw in Washington, D.C.
What the Trump inauguration and Women’s March reveal about the next four years in America.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How Prison Nurseries Help Incarcerated Mothers and Their Babies
Sarah Yager reports in The Atlantic about how nursery prisons are helping incarcerated mothers and their babies.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Quotes
It’s Not Just About the Minimum Wage: Barbara Ehrenreich Revisits Her Book
So what is the solution to the poverty of so many of America’s working people? Ten years ago, when Nickel and Dimed first came out, I often responded with the standard liberal wish list — a higher minimum wage, universal health care, affordable housing, good schools, reliable public transportation, and all the other things we, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Pirates on the ‘Postmodern Ocean’ Are Getting More Professional
Piracy and armed robbery at sea are on the rise, according to Deutsche Welle, which noted “the increasing professionalism of the pirates” in a recent report focused on Southeast Asia. “The Outlaw Ocean,” Ian Urbina’s ongoing New York Times series chronicling lawlessness at sea, says many merchant vessels have been hiring private security as protection. […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
The War on Drugs Is a War on Women of Color
Women of color are disproportionately targeted by the war on drugs and broken windows policing.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Nonfiction, Story
Hoffnung um jeden Preis
Privatkliniken in Deutschland verkaufen Krebspatienten Hoffnung zu Höchstpreisen — mit durchwachsenem Erfolg.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What Happens When We Run Out of Jobs?
After 300 years of breathtaking innovation, people aren’t massively unemployed or indentured by machines. But to suggest how this could change, some economists have pointed to the defunct career of the second-most-important species in U.S. economic history: the horse. For many centuries, people created technologies that made the horse more productive and more valuable—like plows […]
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2016: Under-Recognized Stories
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in under-recognized stories.
