Conventional wisdom is that people don’t read long magazine stories online, but Mother Jones readers regularly prove otherwise. Every time we run a compelling, multipage article on our website, we find that many of you read all the way to the end…and comment, tweet, Facebook, and Tumble enthusiastically about details deep into the story. And what better time to curl up with a great read than over a long weekend (including you lucky ones with new iPads)? Below, a selection of our (and our readers’) best-loved MoJo long reads from 2010.
What Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones?
A nighttime raid. A reality TV crew. A sleeping seven-year-old. What one tragedy can teach us about the unraveling of America’s middle class.
By Charlie LeDuff
Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason
Glenn Beck loves them. Tea Partiers court them. Congressmen listen to them. Meet the fast-growing “patriot” group that’s recruiting soldiers to resist the Obama administration.
By Justine Sharrock
The Ongoing Mysteries of the Elizabeth Smart Case
The verdict is in. But questions—about polygamy, prophecy, and insanity—remain.
By Scott Carrier
The Deadly Corruption of Clinical Trials
When you risk life and limb to help test a drug, are you helping science—or Big Pharma? One patient’s tragic, and telling, story.
By Carl Elliott
Glenn Beck’s Golden Fleece
How Beck and other right-wing talkers turned paranoia into a pitch for Goldline, the gold dealer one congressman says is conspiring to “cheat consumers.”
By Stephanie Mencimer
What’s Killing the Babies of Kettleman City?
Maybe it’s the toxic waste dump. Maybe the pesticides, or the diesel fumes, or the arsenic. How a small-town mystery could change the way we look at pollution.
By Jacques Leslie
The Juan Doe Problem: One Woman’s Search for Dead Migrants’ Roots
How do you identify a dead border crosser when all that remains is a pile of teeth and bones?
By Andi McDaniel
For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question
Living with the crazy, fearless young men who risk life and limb to document Burma’s genocide.
By Mac McClelland
Fannie and Freddie’s Foreclosure Barons
How fishy foreclosures earned millions for lawyers like David J. Stern—and made the housing crisis even worse.
By Andy Kroll
The BP Cover-Up
BP and the government say the spill is fast disappearing—but dramatic new science reveals that its worst effects may be yet to come.
By Julia Whitty
