In 1894, America was in the midst of what was then the largest depression in its young history. Amidst all of the Sturm und Drang of the Second Industrial Revolution, the railroad industry had overextended itself and a flood of… Read More ›
Labor
Mountaineers Are Seldom Free: Union-Busting in the West Virginia Mine Wars
Everything on and about my person had been coated in a thick film of stale tobacco smoke. After 30 days, 10,000 miles and 4 cartons of cigarettes, the air inside the cabin of my car had obtained the same translucence… Read More ›
Fractured Communities: How Fracking Is Widening The Gap Between The Haves & Have-Nots in Rural Ohio
Now’s the time we smile. Well, not just smile. We have to nod too. Smile and nod. Wrinkle our brows and scribble down notes all sharp and hasty so he feels important; so he thinks we’re hanging on his every… Read More ›
Coal, Corporate Personhood & The Twilight of Labor Unions in America
In light of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings in Harris v. Quinn and Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Hobby Lobby Stores, which have dealt another body shot to organized labor and further entrenched the idea of “corporate personhood” in our… Read More ›
“Because The Money’s Too Damn Good to Leave” : A Look Inside North Dakota’s Oil Boom
There is no acceptable English word to describe how hot it was on the day I ran into Toby. When I started talking to him on the corner of South Main and Charleston in Las Vegas’s arts district it was… Read More ›
Requiem For an Old Mountain Mining Town: Stories From Butte, Montana
Like most of its coal mining Appalachian counterparts on the other side of the Mississippi, the city of Butte, Montana subsists today on little more than the fumes of its former glory. Now, over a half century removed from halcyon… Read More ›
Black Hearts Trump Black Lungs
It all starts with the cough. Well, the cough and maybe a bit of that rust colored sputum that comes up from the ass end of your lungs every now and again. There’s not much to talk about, because half… Read More ›
No Breadwinning Girls Allowed
Dear sirs, I must say it has certainly been a breath of fresh air to see that at least one corner of the professional punditry realizes the immense damage being done to this country’s moral fiber by women… Read More ›
Overeducated & Unemployed
What was that line y’all fed us when we were but knee high and tow headed, sitting cross-legged in the assembly hall with casts on our arms and a song in our hearts? It was something to do with stars… Read More ›
Fox News: Fair, Balanced & Brought to You by Walmart
Amid the Fair and Balanced lunacy of Fox News there are moments of stark lucidity that serve to underscore who is in on the joke and who is not. When Megyn Kelly sardonically asked Karl Rove if the endless stream… Read More ›
Virally Suppressed - Muckraking For The Modern World 