Reading List

Authors Like James Bloodworth

In Amazon's warehouse in Rugeley, Staffordshire, James Bloodworth was timed by the handheld scanner he carried, walked miles a shift between the shelves and found bottles of urine left by workers afraid to fall behind. That was the first of the jobs in Hired (2018); after it came home care in Blackpool, a call centre in south Wales and driving for Uber in London. Two years earlier he had argued in The Myth of Meritocracy (2016) that working-class children still end up in working-class jobs; Hired was the evidence. In 2025 he published something quite different, Lost Boys, a personal journey through the online world of the manosphere. The ten below were chosen on two counts: each took the low-paid job or entered the hidden world themselves, and each used it to say something about the whole country.

By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Undercover journalism · Work and class in Britain · Updated October 2026

Quick answer

If you love James Bloodworth's Hired, the closest match is Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed is the American book it is modelled on. For the British original, read George Orwell; for the same experiment fifteen years earlier, Polly Toynbee; for France, Florence Aubenas; and for the same Amazon warehouses in America, Jessica Bruder. David Goodhart reads the same divided Britain differently. Each entry below says which job they took and what it showed about the country.

Every book by James Bloodworth →

Where to start if you loved James Bloodworth

If you want the closest match, read Barbara Ehrenreich.

Nickel and Dimed. The American book Hired follows.

If you want the British original, read George Orwell.

The Road to Wigan Pier. The north of England in 1936.

If you want the French version, read Florence Aubenas.

The Night Cleaner. Six months of cleaning in Normandy.

If you want the argument without the jobs, read Owen Jones.

Chavs. How the working class became a punchline.

If you want the disagreement, read David Goodhart.

The Road to Somewhere. The same Britain, divided differently.

If you want more reporting like this

My list of the best investigative journalism books has the rest.

10 authors like James Bloodworth

01
The model for Hired · Closest match

Barbara Ehrenreich

American · Nickel and Dimed (2001), Bright-Sided (2009)

For Nickel and Dimed Ehrenreich worked as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide and Walmart associate in Florida, Maine and Minnesota between 1998 and 2000, and tried to live on what she earned. The book became a standard text on low-wage America. She died in 2022.

The job:Waitress, hotel maid, cleaner, care aide and Walmart associate.

The country:The United States at the end of the 1990s boom.

Nickel and Dimed is the book Hired is most often set beside, and the two share the arithmetic of wages against rent. Ehrenreich is drier and funnier; Bloodworth is more concerned with the towns the jobs replaced.

— Lisanne

Every book by Barbara Ehrenreich →

Authors like Barbara Ehrenreich →

02
Older than the genre · The British original

George Orwell

British · Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)

Before the novels that made him famous, Orwell washed dishes in Paris hotel kitchens and lived among tramps in England for Down and Out in Paris and London, and travelled through the mining towns of the north for The Road to Wigan Pier, whose second half is an argument about class and socialism.

The job:Weeks in the mining towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1936.

The country:The north of England, and an argument about class and socialism.

The Road to Wigan Pier is the British original: a writer from outside travels into working-class England and then argues about what he found. Hired follows the same structure, scenes first and argument after.

— Lisanne

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Authors like George Orwell →

03
The same experiment, fifteen years earlier

Polly Toynbee

British · Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain (2003)

Toynbee, a Guardian columnist, lived for several weeks on the minimum wage in a council flat in south London and took a string of low-paid jobs, among them hospital porter and school dinner lady, to test what Britain's new minimum wage was worth.

The job:Several weeks on the minimum wage, in jobs including hospital porter and school dinner lady.

The country:Britain under Labour, measured against its promises.

Toynbee did in the early 2000s what Bloodworth did in 2016, as a Guardian columnist living on the minimum wage in south London. Read together, the two books are a record of low-paid Britain across fifteen years.

— Lisanne
04
Not British · The deepest disguise

Günter Wallraff

German · Ganz unten (1985; in English Lowest of the Low)

Wallraff spent two years disguised as a Turkish labourer called Ali, taking the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in West Germany, including at a steelworks and as a test subject for drugs. Ganz unten became one of the best-selling non-fiction books in post-war Germany and caused a national scandal.

The job:Two years as a Turkish labourer under the name Ali.

The country:West Germany's treatment of its guest workers.

Wallraff's disguise went far beyond Bloodworth's, but Ganz unten rests on the same idea: the reporter takes the worst job available, and the country's attitude shows in how he is treated.

— Lisanne

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05
Not British · The same experiment in France

Florence Aubenas

French · The Night Cleaner (Le Quai de Ouistreham, 2010)

Aubenas, a well-known French reporter who had been held hostage in Iraq in 2005, registered at a job centre in Caen as an unemployed woman with no qualifications and spent six months in cleaning jobs, including on the cross-Channel ferries at Ouistreham. The book was filmed in 2021 with Juliette Binoche.

The job:Six months cleaning ferries and offices in Normandy.

The country:Precarious work in provincial France after the 2008 crash.

Aubenas did in France almost exactly what Bloodworth did in Britain, and her book is quieter, more about the women she worked beside than about any argument. It is the best companion to Hired from outside the English-speaking world.

— Lisanne

Every book by Florence Aubenas →

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06
Not British · The other Amazon warehouse

Jessica Bruder

American · Nomadland (2017), Snowden's Box (2020)

Bruder spent three years with older Americans living in vans and following seasonal work across the West, from Amazon's CamperForce warehouses to the sugar-beet harvest, and bought a van to live in herself. Nomadland was adapted into the film that won three Oscars in 2021.

The job:Shifts in Amazon's CamperForce warehouses beside older seasonal workers.

The country:Retirement and housing in the United States after 2008.

Bruder and Bloodworth both worked inside Amazon warehouses and describe the same scanners and step counts from opposite sides of the Atlantic. Bruder stays with her colleagues for years; Bloodworth moves on to the next job and the next town.

— Lisanne

Every book by Jessica Bruder →

Authors like Jessica Bruder →

07
Not British · The same method, a darker institution

Shane Bauer

American · A Sliver of Light (2014), American Prison (2018)

Bauer was held in Iran for twenty-six months after being arrested near the Iraqi border in 2009. In 2014 and 2015 he worked for four months as a guard at a private prison in Louisiana, under his own name, for Mother Jones; American Prison sets that experience against two centuries of profit from prisoners.

The job:Four months as a guard in a private prison in Louisiana.

The country:Two centuries of profit from American prisoners.

Bauer applies the same undercover method to a prison. Read American Prison if what held you in Hired was the company behind the job rather than the job itself.

— Lisanne

Every book by Shane Bauer →

Authors like Shane Bauer →

08
The argument, without the jobs

Owen Jones

British · Chavs (2011), The Establishment (2014)

Chavs argues that the British working class has been turned from a source of pride into an object of ridicule in politics and the media, and was published when Jones was in his twenties. He is a columnist for The Guardian.

The job:None: Chavs is built on argument and interviews, not undercover work.

The country:The contempt for the working class in British politics and media.

Chavs makes the case Bloodworth's first book makes, that class in Britain is decided early and then mocked, and it came out five years before The Myth of Meritocracy. Read it for the argument and Hired for the evidence.

— Lisanne
09
Older than the genre · Workers in their own words

Studs Terkel

American · Working (1974), “The Good War” (1984)

Terkel built books out of interviews with ordinary Americans, edited so that their own voices carry them. Working gathers more than a hundred people talking about their jobs; “The Good War”, an oral history of the Second World War, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985.

The job:More than a hundred Americans talking about their jobs.

The country:Post-war America, through what people actually do all day.

Terkel lets workers speak for themselves, as Bloodworth's colleagues often do in Hired. Working is the book behind the whole tradition of writing about jobs from the inside.

— Lisanne

Every book by Studs Terkel →

Authors like Studs Terkel →

10
A different reading of the same country

David Goodhart

British · The Road to Somewhere (2017), Head Hand Heart (2020)

Goodhart, the founding editor of Prospect magazine, argues that Britain's deepest division runs between “Anywheres”, mobile and educated, and “Somewheres”, rooted in one place, and that politics has served the first group at the expense of the second.

The job:None: he argues from data and political history.

The country:A Britain split by values, Anywheres against Somewheres.

Goodhart looks at the same divided country Bloodworth reports from and draws a different conclusion: the divide that matters most, he argues, runs between people rooted in one place and people at home anywhere, rather than between the well and badly paid. The Road to Somewhere is the useful disagreement to read next to Hired.

— Lisanne

Frequently asked questions about authors like James Bloodworth

Who should I read if I love James Bloodworth?

Barbara Ehrenreich is the closest match: Nickel and Dimed is the American book Hired is modelled on. George Orwell and Polly Toynbee are the British tradition, Günter Wallraff, Florence Aubenas, Jessica Bruder and Shane Bauer applied the same method elsewhere, Owen Jones and Studs Terkel cover the same ground through argument and interviews, and David Goodhart reads the same divided Britain differently.

What books are similar to Hired?

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001) is the closest. After it come Hard Work by Polly Toynbee (2003), The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell (1937), The Night Cleaner by Florence Aubenas (2010) and Nomadland by Jessica Bruder (2017).

What jobs did James Bloodworth do in Hired?

Four: picking orders in Amazon's warehouse in Rugeley, Staffordshire; home care in Blackpool; working in a call centre in south Wales; and driving for Uber in London. He spent about six months on the book.

What is James Bloodworth's newest book?

Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere (2025), about the online world of men's self-help and misogyny and the young men drawn into it.

How many books has James Bloodworth written?

Three: The Myth of Meritocracy (2016), Hired (2018) and Lost Boys (2025). My guide to all three James Bloodworth books covers each one.

Nothing here was suggested by a machine. I picked these ten myself, and the reasons are on the page.

Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021. See more on her personal bookshelf.

More from the shelf

Author guide

Books Written by James Bloodworth

All three, in order.

Reading list

Authors Like Barbara Ehrenreich

More work from the inside.

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Authors Like George Orwell

Where this tradition began.

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Best Investigative Journalism Books

Reporting that changed what we know.

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