The Baffler

The Baffler is a magazine of cultural, political, and business criticism that was established in 1988 and published until the spring of 2007. It was revived in 2009,^[2] with the first issue of volume 2 published in January 2010. The magazine was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and sold at bookstores across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

History

Established in 1988 by editors Thomas Frank and Keith White and published by Greg Lane, The Baffler had up to 12,000 subscribers.^[3] A self-described goal was to be "the journal that blunts the cutting edge".^[4] It was known for critiquing "business culture and the culture business"^[5] and for having exposed the grunge speak hoax perpetrated on the New York Times.^[6] One famous and much-republished article, "The Problem with Music" by Steve Albini, exposed the inner-workings of the music business during the indie rock heyday.^[7]

The magazine is credited with having helped launch the careers of several writers, including Thomas Frank (What's the Matter with Kansas?), Ana Marie Cox of Wonkette, and Rick Perlstein (Nixonland).^[4]

Issues

The magazine published sporadically, especially after the Chicago office of The Baffler was destroyed in a fire on April 25, 2001.^[8] The Baffler #14 was in press at the time, and only three new issues were subsequently published.

Timeline of The Baffler magazine: #1 (1988), #2 (1990), #3 (1991), #4 (1992), #5 (1993), #6–7 (1995), #8 (1996), #9–11 (1997), #12–13 (1999), #14 (2001), #15–16 (2003), #17 (2006).^[9]

Relaunch

On June 23, 2009 the New York Observer reported that founding editor Thomas Frank decided to revive the magazine.^[2] The magazine was relaunched in 2010, under a new publisher and new editors, and with a new design, with volume 2, issue 1 published in Winter, 2010.

The Baffler is sold through many different distribution channels, both as a book and as a magazine; in addition to the publication's ISSN, all but the earliest issues have an individual ISBN.

In October 2011, the new editor, John Summers, signed a 5-year publishing contract with the MIT Press.^[10] In October 2014, Summers announced The Baffler was breaking from MIT Press and would bring publishing operations in-house.^[11]

In January 2016, the magazine announced that it would be moving to a quarterly schedule.^[12]

Collections

• Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from The Baffler. Edited by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland. Norton, 1997. ISBN 0-393-31673-4.
• Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy (Salvos from The Baffler). Edited by Thomas Frank and David Mulcahey. Norton, 2003. ISBN 0-393-32430-3
• No Future For You: Salvos from The Baffler. Edited by John Summers, Chris Lehmann and Thomas Frank. MIT Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-262-02833-2.

References

External links

• Official website
• Excerpts from The Baffler at the Internet Archive (requires JavaScript for navigation)