Treat the Rich

In the opening pages of Pity the Billionaire, Thomas Frank sounds like he’s reporting on the protests against Wall Street during the fall of 2011. He describes the uproar that spread through the country in the years after a stock-market bubble burst in America’s face, a moment in which unemployment is high and the middle class is demoralized.“Markets disintegrate, layoffs mount, foreclosures begin, and before you know it,” Frank writes, “the people are in the streets, yelling for blood.” But this early scene in Frank’s latest book isn’t a record of the months-long unrest of the various

culture November 10, 2011

The Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge

Excerpted from a Kindle Single

To the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Brooklyn was a target of both strategic and tactical significance.

One of the protesters’ early frustrations was that to the extent they were getting any play in the mainstream media, it portrayed them as white children of privilege, lacking in diversity.

To the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Brooklyn was a target of both strategic and tactical significance.

One of the protesters’ early frustrations was that to the extent they were getting any play in the mainstream media, it portrayed them as white children of privilege, lacking in diversity. The reason that grated on them was because to a certain degree it was true. Planting their protest flag in Brooklyn would open a new front in the city’s largest borough by population — and the heart of what still remained of its middle class. While the smattering of young white hipsters clustered near