"The End of a World That Had Sustained Them"

"There was a time when the white working class was the subject of happier tales. Like the yeoman farmer in the 19th century, the white worker of the mid-20th century was the protagonist of the American saga. Members of the white working class were the linchpin of the New Deal coalition, the guys who fought and won World War II (well, if you ignored those Americans shunted to the all-black units), the Riveting Rosies who built those guys' armaments, the postwar factory workers who made the goods we sold to the world at the height of U.S. economic power and, in consequence of their high levels of unionization, the world's most affluent and economically secure working class from the 1950s through the 1970s.
"In recent decades, however, the stories of the white working class have grown relentlessly grimmer."

Harold Meyerson at The American Prospect discusses the rise in the death rate for middle-aged white workers.

As does Noah Smith at The Bloomberg Report.

As does Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.