Hagerstown Community College is happy to announce its third annual Big Read initiative, open to all students, faculty, staff, and the community. The 2024 Big Read is Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America. 

With stark photo essays and unforgettable true stories, Chris Arnade cuts through “expert” pontification on inequality, addiction, and poverty to allow those who have been left behind to define themselves on their own terms.

The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class.

Get the Book

Copies of the book are available through HCC’s Campus Store and the Brish Library. The book is also available for purchase online. 

Community Events

Author Event at HCC - HCC will host a Big Read event with author Chris Arnade, on Thursday, September 26 at 10 a.m., in the Kepler Theater. Guests will get a closer look into Arnade's interviews with America's Back Row. Bring your book to ask questions and get a free book signing! 

Meet the Author

Chris Arnade is a freelance writer and photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among many others. He has Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University and worked for 20 years as a trader at an elite Wall Street bank before leaving in 2012 to document addiction in the Bronx.