Matt Weiland

Tom Frank

Diamonds Mulcahey

Once upon a time, America was a land of middleness, a land full of middle-class people and our culture celebrated the average guy. In recent years, though, we hear that the great middle has disappeared, done in by the end of consensus and a fragmented culture. This issue examines the new climate of middleness on the defensive, and its writers come up with some interesting observations.

The Baffler Number 11

Thasnai Sethaseree

After a year-long absence caused by a fire that wiped out their office, The Baffler is back, now fully redesigned, featuring a larger cut size and a better, cleaner inside design. This issue takes on a nervous America in the aftermath of 9/11, with essays on the ugly lessons taught by America's greatest sporting event, how rock became reactionary, the military-industrial complex on a bender, the secret connections between American Girl dolls and sperm merchandisers, libertarians in love, dining and weather, plus fiction from Mahmoud Darwish and Eileen Myles, and more.

Civilization With a Krag

The Baffler Magazine #15

At no other moment in history have the values of business and the corporation been more nakedly and arrogantly in the ascendant. Combining popular intellectual history with a survey of recent business culture, Thomas Frank traces an idea he calls 'market populism' - the notion that markets are, in some transcendent way, identifiable with democracy and the will of the people. The idea that any criticism of things as they are is -litist can be seen in management literature, where downsizing and ceaseless, chaotic change are celebrated as victories for democracy; in advertising, where an endless array of brands seek to position themselves as symbols of authenticity and rebellion; on Wall street, where the stock market is identified as the domain of the small investor and common man; and in the right-wing politics of the 1990s and the popular theories of Tom Peters, Charles Handy and Thomas Friedman. One Market Under God is Frank's counterattack against the onslaught of market propaganda. Mounted with the weapons of common sense it is lucid and tinged with anger, betrayal and a certain hope for the future.

Tom Frank

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