Laborious
Timeless stories from our 174-year archive handpicked to add context to the news of the day.
Fighting Polio in Gaza
[ M A R C H • 2 0 0 2 ]
“The unheralded tragedies of this complacency are the millions who will die this year of infectious diseases that we can treat, or at least control.”
Read “Germ Culture” by Howard Markel
[ J U N E • 1 9 4 5 ]
A neurologist’s account of the early efforts to eradicate polio.
Read “Are You Afraid of Polio?” by Dr. Howard A. Howe
[ F E B R U A R Y • 1 9 3 0 ]
“Whenever a great catastrophe, like an earthquake, tornado, or pestilence descends upon people who live in one corner of the world, those who occupy other corners indulge themselves for a delicious instant in a comfortable sense of security.”
Read “Infantile Paralysis” by George Draper, M.D.
Back to School Shootings
[ J U L Y • 1 9 9 9 ]
“‘Senseless school shooting’ is now a genre with resonance across the country because it unites universality and specificity so compellingly.”
Read “The Gunfire Dialogues” by Thomas De Zengotita
[ M A R C H • 2 0 1 3 ]
“It seems obvious to me that, when considering the towering difference in murder statistics between the United States and other industrialized lands, the most relevant factor is the ready availability of certain kinds of firearms. I believe that the ideology of libertarianism, with its twin gods Market and Magnum, is not just bankrupting us; it is killing us.”
Read “Blood Sport” by Thomas Frank
[ F E B R U A R Y • 2 0 2 2 ]
On Texas’s permitless carry and the new gun-rights extremism.
Read “Free Country” by Rachel Monroe
Glory Days
[ N O V E M B E R • 1 9 3 0 ]
“Here is a nation that is spending millions each year on football tickets and printing millions of words concerning football stars. Why, under these circumstances, it should be considered dishonorable, let alone dishonest, for a young man to profit by his natural talents to the extent of the books, the food, the tuition necessary for an education is an eternal mystery.”
Read “Pity the Poor Athlete” by Frank Schoonmaker
[ J U N E • 1 9 2 5 ]
“Unless he grows up to be President, or defendant in an important murder trial, the college football player is likely to receive far more extensive and searching newspaper publicity during his undergraduate days than at any other period of his life.”
Read “Dying for Dear Old—” by Heywood Broun
[ S E P T E M B E R • 2 0 1 9 ]
On the draft: how the NFL shops for players.
Read “The Wood Chipper” by Gil Heitor Cortesão
All Work and No Play
[ S E P T E M B E R • 2 0 1 8 ]
Garret Keizer argues that unions must either demand a place at the table or be part of the meal.
[ J A N U A R Y • 1 9 3 8 ]
“The workers of the nation are by far the largest body of consumers. Unless they have sufficient wages—buying power—to enable them to purchase a reasonable proportion of the consumable goods which they help to produce, surpluses of goods will again arise and a new depression will be inevitable.”
Read “What’s Behind the Strikes?” by Alexander Hamilton Frey
[ N O V E M B E R • 2 0 1 7 ]
On the ways in which feminist struggles become labor struggles.
Read “Lean Out” by Dayna Tortorici