Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy

by Thomas Frank (Editor), David Mulcahey (Editor)

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.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, Essays, Social Commentary, Criticism

416 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Thomas Frank is the author of Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What's the Matter with Kansas? A former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper's, Frank is the founding editor of The Baffler and writes regularly for Salon. He lives outside Washington, D.C.

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 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 and the ascendancy of the right, pieces on the vacancy of pop culture, Mike Neuwirth's essay on gentrification in Chicago, are great pieces of prose that never cohere quite into the systematic critique or direction forward a reader caught up in them might want. Their bite's sharp but not infectous.

[Lucas Gelfond · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 Chained and Huddled Masses" "I, Faker" "A Sell-Out's Tale" "I'd Like to Force the World to Sing" "Dreams Incorporated" and "The Intern Economy and the Culture Trust." The Baffler as a magazine just rocks. A really phenomenal compilation of essays from the "little magazine" tradition of the Left and effortless blending of culture/politics, highly recommend

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 read, and a piece on the slave-like labor of internships still feels relevant, because apparently the problem has only gotten worse. The NYT has written about it lately.

Toward the end, bored, I began to skim.

It was irritating that of 32 pieces, only two were by women.

[Llewellyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

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", with its "property-is-theft" sentiments, or Daniel LaZare's attack piece on Hilton Kramer, which comes off like a denunciation from the days of the Chinese Cultural Revolution). Christian Parenti's "Bring Us Your Chained And Huddled Masses", comes from a perspective best described as fiercely opposed to the very idea of incarceration of criminals (obscuring whatever validity his points about the flaws of corporate prisons may otherwise have). His other piece, "Us Vs. Them In The Me Generation" is an essential read, packed with largely forgotten information about labor relations in the 1970's, though it fails to view the actions of labor, which were at times excessive, through anything but the most rosy of lenses.
I found much to both agree and disagree with within these pages; highly recommended.

[Beth Barnett · Rating 4 out of 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.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Me2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

[Peter D. McLoughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[David Robertus · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[DURTY · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are doomed.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

ya gotta love the Baffler.