Category Archives: Kathy M. Newman

Bottom Chefs: A Working-Class Lens in the Competition Kitchen

Posted on November 23, 2014 by

Last week Top Chef Boston aired its Thanksgiving episode (filmed in July) in which the chefs had to squat over open fires, stir pots with large wooden spoons, and to try to cook a Thanksgiving feast limited by the ingredients … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Working-Class Hero Explains How to Save our “Wounded Colossus”

Posted on October 6, 2014 by

Bob Herbert had no childhood dreams of becoming a journalist. As he explained in a recent interview, he grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, in an African American family that he once described as “working-class with a middle-class sensibility.” In … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Culture of Success

Posted on September 22, 2014 by

This semester I am teaching a freshman seminar on the college novel. We started with This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald’s bizarre, Princeton-set contribution to the genre. The main character, Amory Blaine, starts life in Minneapolis with many material advantages. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

60 Years Later: On the Waterfront and Working-Class Studies

Posted on July 14, 2014 by

For most Americans On the Waterfront is not a politically controversial film—it’s simply one of the best films of all time. Many know that the film’s director Elia Kazan did something shady and some might even know that he testified … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman, Labor and Community Activism | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Serfs for Hire: Learning about Labor from Silicon Valley and Game of Thrones

Posted on June 9, 2014 by

At first glance HBO’s new series, Silicon Valley, doesn’t seem to have much in common with Game of Thrones. Silicon Valley is a comedy in which men (only) vie for immortality behind computer screens, while Game of Thrones is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman, Labor and Community Activism | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Still Learning from the Scholarship Boy

Posted on May 6, 2014 by

2014 is still young, but we have lost a handful of British working-class scholars and activists who have been pivotal for working-class studies and politics, starting with cultural studies legend Stuart Hall, who died in February. In March, Tim Strangleman … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman, Sherry Linkon, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Which Side Is Culture On?

Posted on March 31, 2014 by

Last week I got a call from a reporter at The Guardian asking me to weigh in on the newest anti-union salvo from the Target corporation: a creepy, personal, direct-to-camera attack on unions, delivered by two red polo-shirt wearing Target … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Kathy M. Newman | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments