Salvos of sane and humorous dissent from the worship of the almighty market. For A Magazine Dedicated to debunking the nation's business culture, the final years of the twentieth century overflowed with bounty. "It was the most spectacular outbreak of mass delirium that we are likely to see in our lifetimes, " wrote the editors of The Baffler. What was for others the dawn of a "New Economy" was for The Baffler a cornucopia of absurdity--the costliest political and financial hustle in living memory. Reporting from places far from the white-hot centers of the libertarian revolution, Baffler writers were the people of whom it was fashionable to say they just don't get it. While New Democrats turned somersaults for Wall Street and economic commentary became puffery, these bold, talented, and very funny writers observed the crescendo of folly with which the century turned. Here their best writings are selected, updated, and reaffirmed, to sharpen our wits and inoculate us against follies yet to come.

Reader Reviews

Me2

(2/5)

Nov 23, 2024

I didn't read all the way through this book. It was not really informative, it was just a collections of economic satires.

Beth Barnett

(4/5)

The subtitle is the cultural politics of the New Economy. More essays from the Baffler's late '90s through 2002 issues. Some essays/articles are better than others, but there are some real gems in here, both informative and entertaining. I particularly like T. Frank's essay "The God that Sucked" and some of the essays about interns and about credit.

Andrew

BJ is a comp of essays from the underground journal The Baffler. The pieces range from succinct, thoughtful and variously left-of-center brilliance (the Thomas Frank bits, Matt Roth's inside look at the Amway multi-level marketing company, Jim Frederick's spot-on expose on the much-abused practice of internship, itself part of a section entitled "Interns Built The Pyramids"), to the marginal rantings of the NeoMarxist, postmodernist lunatic fringe (Nelson Smith's "A Partial History Of Alarms", w...

Peter D. McLoughlin

(5/5)

Skewers business culture and "hip capitalism" lots of fun.

Jay

(3/5)

The Baffler, it seems, is the anti-culture-industry culture & criticism magazine-- DIY, populist, angry, well-read. The kids who found grad school pretentious but still read better than their classmates; the bitter woman in tweed at the good dive bar. They're anti-bourgeois of course, but also anti-bohemian the minute they get a whiff of self-satisfaction or social indifference. As a volume, this book is exhausting. Some of my favorite essays in here-- Thomas Frank's work on social atomization a...

Stuart

Greatly enjoyable volume cultural and economic criticism. Not quiiiiite as good as Commodify Your Dissent, but still full of excellent laughs and acerbic commentary on the absurdity of the New Economy. Especially amusing reading within the context of the eminent collapse of global capitalism.

Lucas Gelfond

once again want to restate this is about "booboisie" not just a super objectifying title, but the essays in here are SO fucking good. seriously remarkable to see how many takes I feel like I almost only heard in mainstream liberal circles after Trump's victory that the Baffler was writing about in the 90s. Charming/enjoyable/clever salvos that are both super interesting/well written and also very informative, my favorite essays: "The God that Sucked" "A Parital History of Alarms" "Bring Us Your

Jonathan

We are doomed.

Llewellyn

I keep thinking I'll love the Baffler. Cathartic cultural criticism of American hyper capitalism sold in record stores alongside zines, what's not to love? But every time I'm disappointed. It loses focus and beats up on undeserving topics. Makes me yearn for dry economic writers like Stiglitz. It's like reading a very erudite teenager complain about his parents making him take the garbage out.

David Robertus

Some of the best writing outside of the New Yorker. Truly witty, funny, insightful, thoughtful articles still relevant almost a decade later.

Lobstergirl

I used to sometimes buy the Baffler at my local bookstore and revel in its sharp, anti-managerial-capitalistic, anti-free-market screeds. Reading these pieces, most from the late 90s, feels like entering a time warp. The tech stock market crash was fresh in the writers' minds as they assembled the anthology. But somehow every economic crash feels very different, and many of these pieces don't have a huge amount of relevance to our latest Great Recession. Articles about Amway are always a fun rea...

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Popular Genres

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Boob Jubilee: The Mad Cultural Politics of the New Economy: Salvos from the Baffler

Boob Jubilee: The Mad Cultural Politics of the New Economy: Salvos from the Baffler

Boob Jubilee: The Mad Cultural Politics of the New Economy: Salvos from the Baffler

More books from Studs Terkel

Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do

The Good War: An Oral History of World War II

The Man with the Golden Arm

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

Chicago: City on the Make

Division Street: America

The Neon Wilderness

Reader Reviews