The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The East

"The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The East" by Walter A. Wyckoff is a story about a man who leaves his comfortable life to experience what it’s like to be a working-class laborer in the late 1800s. The book tells of his journey from a privileged academic to someone doing hard physical work. He wants to understand the lives of people in lower economic classes. As he goes from excitement to the tough reality of manual labor, he takes on different jobs, reflecting on how different his life is now, considering what labor means, and who he is. He finds that it's hard to find jobs, but he also discovers the important bonds and shared experiences among his fellow laborers, making the realities of their lives more complex.