Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Undercover Journalism · Updated July 2026
Nellie Bly went undercover into a mental asylum in 1887 to expose its abuses, and Ten Days in a Mad-House became a foundational text of the undercover investigative method — journalism that gets the story by living inside it rather than observing from a safe distance. She later circled the globe in a real-life race against Jules Verne's fictional eighty days, becoming a celebrity while remaining a serious reporter. The writers below share her commitment to getting past institutional gatekeeping to the truth underneath.
Readers who enjoy Nellie Bly often turn to Brooke Kroeger for the historian who has documented Bly's own life and the broader undercover reporting tradition she pioneered, Ida Tarbell for muckraking journalism exposing corporate abuse in the same progressive-era spirit, Studs Terkel for oral history that lets ordinary voices carry the record institutions would rather ignore, Gloria Steinem for undercover reporting applied to gender and workplace exploitation, Barbara Ehrenreich for contemporary undercover immersion into low-wage work, and Ronan Farrow for modern investigative journalism carrying forward Bly's willingness to get the story institutions actively try to suppress.
Similar Voice & Approach
Brooke Kroeger
Kroeger's biography of Bly and her broader history Undercover Reporting both document and contextualize the undercover investigative method Bly herself pioneered, tracing how later journalists built on her example of using disguise and immersion to expose institutions that would otherwise remain hidden.
Read Kroeger for the historian's perspective on Bly's own life and the broader tradition she helped establish. Her biography of Bly is the natural entry point.
→ Read more about Brooke KroegerIda Tarbell
Tarbell, Bly's contemporary in the emerging muckraking tradition, exposed Standard Oil's monopolistic practices through painstaking documentary research rather than undercover disguise, sharing Bly's conviction that journalism's job is exposing what powerful institutions want kept hidden.
Read Tarbell for the documentary-research counterpart to Bly's undercover method, applied to corporate rather than institutional abuse. Her Standard Oil history is foundational.
Studs Terkel
Terkel shares Bly's conviction that the journalist's job is to surface truths institutions would rather keep hidden, though his method is extended interview and oral history rather than undercover disguise, compiling ordinary people's own accounts of work and hardship.
Read Terkel for a different but related method of getting past institutional gatekeeping to the real story underneath. Working is his essential collection.
→ Read more about Studs TerkelGloria Steinem
Steinem's early undercover reporting as a Playboy Bunny to expose the club's working conditions directly echoes Bly's own method of infiltrating an institution to document its abuses from the inside, sharing Bly's conviction that some truths can only be exposed through firsthand immersion.
Read Steinem for Bly's undercover method applied specifically to gender and workplace exploitation. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is essential.
Barbara Ehrenreich
Ehrenreich extends Bly's undercover method into a contemporary context, going undercover into low-wage American jobs to document the actual, lived difficulty of surviving on minimum wage, sharing Bly's conviction that some economic and institutional realities can only be understood from the inside.
Read Ehrenreich for Bly's undercover immersion method applied to contemporary low-wage work and economic precarity. Nickel and Dimed is the essential entry point.
Ronan Farrow
Farrow's contemporary investigative reporting, particularly his work exposing systematic abuse and institutional cover-up, carries forward Bly's willingness to pursue a story that powerful institutions are actively working to suppress, using persistence and methodical documentation rather than disguise.
Read Farrow for a contemporary continuation of the persistent, institution-challenging investigative tradition Bly helped establish. Catch and Kill is essential.
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Frequently asked questions about authors like Nellie Bly
Who should I read if I like Nellie Bly?
Readers who enjoy Nellie Bly often turn to Brooke Kroeger for the historian who has documented Bly's own life and the broader undercover reporting tradition she pioneered, Ida Tarbell for muckraking journalism exposing corporate abuse in the same progressive-era spirit, Studs Terkel for oral history that lets ordinary voices carry the record institutions would rather ignore, Gloria Steinem for undercover reporting applied to gender and workplace exploitation, Barbara Ehrenreich for contemporary undercover immersion into low-wage work, and Ronan Farrow for modern investigative journalism carrying forward Bly's willingness to get the story institutions actively try to suppress.
Did Brooke Kroeger write about Nellie Bly?
Yes, Kroeger wrote a full biography of Bly, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist, and her broader book Undercover Reporting traces the history of the undercover investigative method Bly herself pioneered in 1887 when she went into a mental asylum to expose its abuses.
What should I read after Ten Days in a Mad-House?
Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed extends Bly's undercover method into contemporary low-wage work. Gloria Steinem's undercover reporting as a Playboy Bunny directly echoes Bly's method of infiltrating an institution from the inside. For a contemporary continuation of institution-challenging investigative journalism, Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill is essential.
Is Barbara Ehrenreich's work similar to Nellie Bly's?
Yes, both share a commitment to undercover immersion as the only way to genuinely understand certain institutional or economic realities. Ehrenreich went undercover into low-wage American jobs to document the actual lived difficulty of surviving on minimum wage, directly extending Bly's own method of exposing conditions from the inside rather than observing from a safe distance.
