What is the Savage Collective?
The Savage Collective is a fellowship of writers, scholars, and practitioners aiming to promote flourishing lives among working class Americans by examining and improving the conditions of labor in the Machine Age.
What sort of writing and analysis does the Savage Collective produce?
The Savage Collective produces four basic types of writing and analysis.
Data Briefs Using publicly available data (e.g., Current Population Survey), the Savage Collective describes emerging relationships and trends impacting labor.
Profiles in Labor Based on interviews and field observations, the Savage Collective is engaged in assembling an oral history of work faced by laborers in the Machine Age.
Regular essays The Savage Collective also writes regular analytic essays that describe conditions faced by laborers and how that relates to the flourishing of working class Americans.
Book Notes The writers at Savage Collective will occasionally review and recommend books that are especially relevant to the topics covered on the Substack.
Guest essays The Savage Collective also welcomes solicited and unsolicited essays as well. If you are interested in publishing with the Savage Collective please email us at: grantmartsolf@protonmail.com
We aim to publish 4-5 pieces per month.
Who is the Savage Collective?
The Savage Collective is a fellowship of writers, scholars, and practitioners.
The Savage Collective primarily consists of Brandon Daily and Grant R. Martsolf.
Brandon Daily is a diesel mechanic and autodidact. He runs a small, family truck repair and breakdown service in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He has a Master's Degree in Religion and tries to read books and drive cars that are much older than him.
Grant Martsolf is a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. Formerly, a Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation, Grant is a social scientist with particular interest in how the transformation of labor from primarily manufacturing to service (especially healthcare) has impacted the lives of working class men. He serves as the Managing Editor.
We also have two interns who help with writing, editing, and research.
Naomi Weiss is a student in the Frederick Honor’s College at the University of Pittsburgh and is actively working on several Profiles in Labor.
Anthony Scholle is a philosophy student at the University of Pittsburgh and a practicing auto mechanic. He will be writing occasional essays for the Substack and helping us apply our findings to the real world of labor.
Join the Collective
Be part of a community of people who share interest in better understanding the conditions faced by labor in the Machine Age. Participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription. Email us at grantmartsolf@protonmail.com
