City of Clerks

Below the middle class managers and professionals yet above the skilled blue-collar workers, sales and office workers occupied an intermediate position in urban America’s social structure as the nation industrialized. Jerome P. Bjelopera traces the shifting occupational structures and work choices that facilitated the emergence of a white-collar workforce. His fascinating portrait reveals the lives led by Philadelphia’s male and female clerks, both inside and outside the workplace, as they formed their own clubs, affirmed their “whiteness,” and challenged sexual norms. 

A vivid look at an overlooked but recognizable workforce, City of Clerks reveals how the notion of “white collar” shifted over half a century.