An The New Economy is in full swing, and we decide to do an issue on labor. It features Jim Frederick’s classic essay on the intern economy (the spine of the issue bore the slogan “Interns Built the Pyramids”). Thomas Frank tells us how class was disappearing. Josh Mason examines the ephemera of bull-market culture, including a punk-rock investment magazine. Tom Vanderbilt rips into office culture, from Dilbert to Successories. Chris Lehmann writes on the intersection of class and labor in the American university. Dan Bischoff recalls the story of union-buster Henry Clay Frick; Frances Reed remembers the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile strike of 1912; Christian Parenti remembers prison labor and tells why it’s coming back. With fiction from Lydia Millet, a nod to authors-in-hiding by Robert Nedelkoff, and a cover by Mark Dancey.
Publication date: Spring 1997
Pages: 128 pages