Before the Civil War, the clerk was “a small but unusual phenomenon.” By the end of the 19th century, clerical workers were a social force to be reckoned with. This is the story of their rise.
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Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews
Interview: ‘Poor Teeth’ Writer Sarah Smarsh on Class and Journalism
“There often is a ‘tone’ in writing about the poor. There is a presumption that people of a certain class are mired in misery.”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
The Adjunct Crisis: A Reading List
“When Mary Margaret Vojtko died last September—penniless and virtually homeless and eighty-three years old, having been referred to Adult Protective Services because the effects of living in poverty made it seem to some that she was incapable of caring for herself—it made the news because she was a professor.” So begins the dark tale of […]
Posted inUncategorized
The McRib Economy
From Willy Staley’s now-classic conspiracy theory about the McDonald’s McRib sandwich, in the Awl.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
The Adjunct Crisis: A Reading List
“When Mary Margaret Vojtko died last September—penniless and virtually homeless and eighty-three years old, having been referred to Adult Protective Services because the effects of living in poverty made it seem to some that she was incapable of caring for herself—it made the news because she was a professor.” So begins the dark tale of […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Jill Abramson on Losing a Job in Public
Is it hard to say I was fired? No. I’ve said it about 20 times, and it’s not. I was in fact insistent that that be publicly clear because I was not ashamed of that. And I don’t think young women — it’s hard, I know — they should not feel stigmatized if they are […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Post-GMO Economy: Our Longreads Member Pick
Elizabeth Royte | Modern Farmer, FERN | December 2013 | 7 minutes (1,700 words) For this week’s Longreads Member Pick, we’re excited to share early access to “The Post-GMO Economy,” a new story by Elizabeth Royte that will be published next week by Modern Farmer, in partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Become a Longreads Member to receive the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Opportunity’s Knocks
The fastest growing job in America—working as a nurse aide—is also among the hardest. The reporter follows a single mother hoping to find a stable job and build a better life for her family: “I’m getting desperate, to be honest,” she told her classmates. “I need something good to happen. I’m hoping this might be […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Post-GMO Economy: Our Longreads Member Pick
For this week’s Longreads Member Pick, we’re excited to share early access to “The Post-GMO Economy,” a new story by Elizabeth Royte that will be published next week by Modern Farmer, in partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Become a Longreads Member to receive the full story and support our service. You can also now […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Loneliness and Solitude: A Reading List
When I moved from a small town in Northern California to Brooklyn, New York in the summer of 2010, I felt the pang of an inarticulable loneliness. Unable to string together words to describe this complicated feeling, I found Olivia Laing’s Aeon essay, “Me, Myself and I,” to be a starting point that began to […]
