The White-Collar Myth

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. A New York City ferry terminal in the late 1860s: Commuters issue forth into Lower Manhattan’s maze of streets. They move in distinct waves through the morning. First come the working-class employees in their flannel shirts, off to jobs in factories and shops for little pay. Then around 7 a.m., the crowd shifts, and the clothing with it. “The shirts of the…