Eileen G’Sell is a poet and critic with recent contributions to the Baffler, Current Affairs, Hyperallergic, and the Hopkins Review, among other publications. She is a 2023 winner of the Rabkin Foundation Prize in arts journalism and teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. Her most recent book, Francofilaments, was published in late 2024.
Karla Murthy’s new documentary film about her immigrant father’s tumultuous journey up and back down the class ladder turns the mythology of the American dream on its head. It’s a story many native-born Americans will find strikingly familiar.
Elite colleges are making a greater effort to recruit working-class students. But flinging open these institutions’ doors won’t end class inequality, and the burdens of working-class entrance into rarefied social circles are often heavier than they seem.
In a wide-ranging interview, novelist Rachel Kushner, author of Creation Lake, discusses the aftermath of the revolutionary ’60s, the allure and brutality of American individualism, and why liberals long for naively romantic depictions of radical politics.
The Exit Is the Entrance chronicles a working life spanning some 30 jobs across eight states. Author Lydia Paar went AWOL from the military at age 20 and never stopped moving, an escape artist evading everything but her student debt.
Elite feminism at times substitutes a culture of contempt for a culture of care. If we are truly devoted to gender equality, we must ditch the assumption that all men enjoy similar privilege.
The rich used to eat, dress, and even speak entirely differently from the masses. Today they wear T-shirts and sneakers just like the rest of us. But that doesn’t mean we’re all equal. It only lays bare the real source of inequality: actual money.