Haruki Murakami, Hannah Tinti, Robert Goolrick, Tao Lin, Harold Jaffe, Amanda Petrusich, Stephanie Kuehnert, Sarah Shun-lien Bunum

When Samuel S. McClure approved, in 1901, his magazine’s best-known writer, Ida Tarbell, to write a 25,000 word, three-part history of The Standard Oil Company, he ignited public outrage, reformist political will and, eventually, triggered the judicial action that broke up the most monopolistic corporate network of its time. In historical perspective, McClure did something else perhaps equally important.