Menu
Idea

professional-managerial class

24
Filter by:

Filter by published date

People gathered around an electronic contraption with lightbulbs.

Ideas of the PMC

A review of three new books that in various ways track the rise of the "Professional Managerial Class."
by Michael J. Kramer via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on March 6, 2022
Photograph of Michael Lind wearing a blazer and tie.

Michael Lind on Reviving Democracy

To fix things, we must acknowledge the nature of the problem.
by Michael Lind, Aaron Sibarium via The American Interest on January 29, 2020
Bill Clinton in front of a poster that reads "New Democrats".

Atari Democrats

As organized labor lost strength, the Democratic Party turned to professional-class voters to shore up its base.
by Lily Geismer via Jacobin on February 8, 2016
A drawing of a man riding a train and laying down train tracks in front of him.

The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.
by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on January 27, 2025
A Newton's Cradle where a black ball prepares to swing into 4 white ones.

Black Success, White Backlash

Black prosperity has provoked white resentment that has led to the undoing of policies that have nurtured Black advancement.
by Elijah Anderson via The Atlantic on October 16, 2023
UC Berkeley campus

The Prophet of Academic Doom

Robert Nisbet predicted the managerialism that has brought universities low. But he also saw a way out.
by Ethan Schrum via The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 19, 2021
Four stars with different designs

How America Fractured Into Four Parts

People in the United States no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?
by George Packer via The Atlantic on June 8, 2021
A man walks amongst deteriorating giant busts of U.S. presidents.

Take Me to Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class

For more than three centuries, something has been going horribly wrong at the top of our society, and we’re all suffering for it.
by Doug Henwood via Jacobin on April 21, 2021
Photo of a group of well-dressed professionals is edited to blot out their faces.

How McKinsey Destroyed the Middle Class

Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind structural inequalities.
by Daniel Markovits via The Atlantic on February 3, 2020
Cubicles

The Moral Life of Cubicles

On the utopian origins of Dilbert's workspace.
by David Franz via The New Atlantis on December 1, 2008
A magnifying glass on C. Wright Mills's book "The Power Elite."

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?

The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.
by Peter Dreier via The New Republic on May 5, 2025
Sam Francis.

The Sam Francis I Knew

The late conservative thinker, who died 20 years ago Saturday, has transcended the pariah status imposed on him during his life.
by Paul Gottfried via The American Conservative on February 20, 2025
illustration of stack of books
partner

The Rise and Fall of Liberal Historiography

How historians changed their approach, from the 1960s to the present.
by Gabriel Winant via HNN on February 11, 2025
Tulsa, Oklahoma on fire during the Tulsa Massacre.

How World War I Inspired Black Americans to Fight for Dignity at Home

The war marked a sea change in how black men viewed their own citizenship.
by Victor Luckerson via Literary Hub on June 1, 2023
Lillian Gilbreth lecturing at Purdue University.

Recognizing the Humanity of the Worker

Lillian Gilbreth, who died just over fifty years ago, saw that the worker could not be understood as a cog in the machine.
by Richard Gunderman via Law & Liberty on January 12, 2023
Early 20th-century women sitting with tea and a guitar.

Secret, Unruly, and Progressive: The History of the Heterodoxy Women’s Club

Bohemian Greenwich Village and the secret club that sparked modern feminism.
by Joanna Scutts via Literary Hub on June 10, 2022
Robot with group of people at poker table

The Automation Myth

To what degree can we blame automation for deindustrialization and class decomposition?
by Clinton Williamson via The Baffler on April 6, 2022
Postcard of Marshall Field & Co.’s Retail Store, Chicago.

Race and Class Identities in Early American Department Stores

Built on the momentum of earlier struggles for justice, the department store movement channeled the power of store workers and consumers to promote black freedom.
by Traci Parker, Phillip Loken via UNC Press Blog on February 23, 2022
Old-time black and white pictures of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir with a modern city background

How American Environmentalism Failed

Traditional environmentalism has lacked a meaningful, practical democratic vision, rendering it largely marginal to the day-to-day lives of most Americans.
by William Shutkin via The MIT Press Reader on August 31, 2021
Henrietta Rodman walking

How Teachers Won the Right to Get Pregnant

In the early twentieth century, teachers were prohibited from keeping their jobs after getting pregnant. Socialist feminists organized to change that.
by Christopher Phelps via Jacobin on July 11, 2021
Comic with Donald Trump at the head of a White House conference room.

The End of the Businessman President

Donald Trump’s catastrophic tenure will be the nail in the coffin of the worst idea in politics: that the government can be run like a corporation.
by Kyle Edward Williams via The New Republic on December 9, 2020
A photograph of Richard Hofstadter in front of a library of books.

Politics, Populism, and the Life of the Mind

An interview with Sean Wilentz on Library of America's new collection of Richard Hofstadter's works.
by Sean Wilentz, Daniel Wortel-London via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on July 27, 2020
multicolor illustration of Gmail icons, iMessage text boxes, reply arrows, and refresh arrows.

Was E-mail a Mistake?

Digital messaging was supposed to make our work lives easier and more efficient, but the math suggests that meetings might be better.
by Cal Newport via The New Yorker on August 6, 2019
Civil War generals Ambrose Burnside and Robert E. Lee, sporting the substantial beards.
partner

City Men on the Beard “Frontier”

A brief discussion of the fierce 19th century debates over beards, and how booming American cities created the perfect climate for all that facial hair to grow.
via BackStory on August 28, 2015

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

brought to you by
© Bunk History