The Baffler No. 12

Baffling the consensus since 1988, this journal seeks to debunk the ideology of the free market and to drive public discourse in literate and humane directions. Issues contain thundering anti-business salvos from the sharpest minds, as well as poetry, literature, and satirical art.

This twelfth issue, "Then Came Nylon," published in 1999, contains the following:

BLOOD

Thomas Frank: New Consensus for Old: Cold Kicking It with the Cult-Studs

Rebecca Bohrman: Rat Choice and Other Tastes

Christian Viveros-Fauné: A Funny Kind of Boosterism: The Literature of “McOndo”

Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant: The New Global Vulgate

SWEAT

Jim Arndorfer: McSploitation

Sandy Zipp: The Hidden Injuries of Balance: Shopping for a Conscience

Christian Parenti: Bring Us Your Chained and Huddled Masses: Carceral Keynesianism

AND TAILFINS

Stephen Duncombe: The Penalty of Leadership: Cadillac and Class Consciousness

Brishen Rogers: The New Myth of the Happy Worker

Bryant Urstadt: Dipping Extremely Low in the Lap of Corporate Luxury: A Sell-Out's Tale

IN THE REPUBLIC OF TASTES

Noah Berlatsky, Lydia Millet, and Mike Newirth: The Literary Vaudeville: Book Reviews

Mike O’Flaherty: Rockerdämmerung: The Punk Escadrille

Corrida Única: Jay Rosen vs. Thomas Frank

FICTION

Johnny Payne: I’m OK, Eeyore OK

Thomas Beer: from In the Country of the Young

POETRY

Pam Brown: Not the Town

Dale Smith: 5:30 P.M.—Friday and Doppio

Joshua Clover: Rue Des Blancs Manteaux

OBJECTIVE

Ed Debevic’s Costume and Character Guide

Ethnic Technologies Helps Companies Learn More About Their Customers