Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from The Baffler

In the old Gilded Age, the barons of business accumulated vast wealth and influence from their railroads, steel mills, and banks. But today it is culture that stands at the heart of the American enterprise, mass entertainment the economic dynamo that brings the public into the consuming fold and consolidates the power of business over the American mind. For a decade The Baffler has been the invigorating voice of dissent against these developments, in the grand tradition of the muckrakers and The American Mercury. This collection gathers the best of its writing to explore such peculiar developments as the birth of the rebel hero as consumer in the pages of Wired and Details; the ever-accelerating race to market youth culture; the rise of new business gurus like Tom Peters and the fad for Hobbesian corporate reengineering; and the encroachment of advertising and commercial enterprise into every last nook and cranny of American life. With its liberating attitude and cant-free intelligence, this book is a powerful polemic against the designs of the culture business on us all.

Author: Thomas Frank
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 10/01/1997
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 5.50h x 8.40w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780393316735

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 11/30/1997 pg. 26
Publishers Weekly 10/06/1997

About the Author
Frank, Thomas: - Thomas Frank is the author of One Market Under God and The Conquest of Cool.