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Alumni Gazette

The return of The Baffler has set the blogosphere abuzz.

For a magazine that appeared only occasionally, The Baffler made a big splash in its brief heyday in the 1990s.

From its founding by 贬补谤辫别谤鈥檚 columnist Thomas Frank in 1988, until late 2010, it came out only 18 times鈥攁nd just twice in the past decade.

Called 鈥渢he journal that blunts the cutting edge,鈥� The Baffler鈥檚 fan base included some of the most prolific and well-known figures in contemporary American letters.

In late 2010, Frank, the Kansas native who penned the 2004 bestseller What鈥檚 the Matter with Kansas?, conceded he鈥檇 be unable to sustain the journal. He called his friend and loyal Baffler contributor Chris Lehmann 鈥�89 (MA) to seek advice.

鈥淭om called me in a dejected state,鈥� says Lehmann, a veteran journalist who鈥檚 editor of Bookforum and formerly a managing editor at Yahoo News. 鈥淗e said, 鈥業 can鈥檛 run this magazine anymore. Do you know anyone who might want to take over a political and literary journal, and is in a position to?鈥� That was probably the only time in my life when I was able to answer 鈥榶es鈥� to a question like that.鈥�

John Summers 鈥�06 (PhD) had paid Lehmann a visit in 2010. The two had known one another since the late 1990s when Summers, then a graduate student in history at Rochester, had invited history alumnus Lehmann to campus to deliver a talk. Summers had been planning to spearhead a new literary journal and sought Lehmann鈥檚 support.

Lehmann gave it. But after Frank called, he had new advice for Summers. 鈥淚 said, 鈥榊ou can launch a brand new literary journal in a climate that鈥檚 not exactly ideal for publication launches, or you could take over this well-recognized brand within the same space you want to occupy.鈥欌��

When Summers received a phone call from Frank, 鈥渁bout five minutes into the phone call I said yes,鈥� Summers says.

This March, The Baffler returns under Summers鈥檚 leadership as editor-in-chief and with a $500,000 publication contract with MIT Press to ensure the journal鈥檚 continuation and publication on a regular schedule for the next five years.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the largest deal in the history of MIT Press鈥檚 arts and humanities publishing,鈥� says Summers, who adds that the journal, which boasts a Web, Facebook, and Twitter presence, will be available 鈥渙n every digital platform.鈥�

Lehmann, who鈥檚 senior editor of the revived Baffler, admits he鈥檚 amazed. 鈥淭hey were constantly trying to find some reliable funding stream,鈥� Lehmann says of Frank and the other Baffler stakeholders. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been amazing,鈥� Lehmann says of Summers鈥檚 negotiation of the MIT Press contract. 鈥淔or The Baffler, this is a huge breakthrough.鈥�

The Baffler specializes in long-form journalism, each issue anchored by an essay of as many as 10,000 words. While it鈥檚 decidedly left-wing in its orientation, it鈥檚 not aimed at promoting any particular political program. Its defining characteristic is a relentless commitment to upending the ingrained鈥攁nd in the view of Baffler editors, misguided鈥攁ssumptions of political and economic elites of both major political parties, the media, and corporate boardrooms.

鈥淭he nice thing about The Baffler is that you could read it, and you didn鈥檛 have to believe in any one kind of program,鈥� says Summers. 鈥淭hey weren鈥檛 socialists, or they weren鈥檛 anarchists, or they weren鈥檛 New Deal liberals, or 19th-century populists. They were a little bit of all of those things,鈥� he says of past Baffler writers.

The March issue features 鈥淥f Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit,鈥� an essay in which anthropologist David Graeber (a key planner of the Occupy Wall Street protests) argues that by many measures, we are living in a time of markedly slow progress in technological innovation.

Frank contributes 鈥淭oo Smart to Fail: Notes on an Age of Folly,鈥� in which he argues that 鈥渁 r茅sum茅 filled with grievous errors in the period 1996鈥�2006鈥� is not only forgiven, but a virtual prerequisite to being taken seriously in Washington today.

Additional essays by bestselling authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Rick Perlstein, as well as a section of fiction, poetry, and satirical art, round out the journal.

Summers is optimistic he can maintain, and even broaden The Baffler鈥檚 appeal. 鈥淔ree market dogma is our sweet spot, wherever it is,鈥� he says. Since the economic collapse of 2008, it鈥檚 hard to say there isn鈥檛 a market for criticisms of the free market.

It鈥檚 not just The Baffler that鈥檚 experiencing a big break, but Summers himself. Like many younger humanities scholars, he鈥檚 been without a full-time job, in his case despite stints as a part-time instructor at Harvard, Columbia, and Boston College, and multiple publications. He wrote an essay, 鈥淕ettysburg Regress,鈥� which the late Christopher Hitchens included in The Best American Essays of 2010 (Mariner Books). He鈥檚 edited two collections of essays鈥攐ne by the critic Dwight MacDonald, and another by the radical sociologist C. Wright Mills, both of which earned him attention in outlets such as the New York Times and the New York Review of Books. He鈥檚 published a collection of his own essays, Every Fury on Earth (Davies Group,) and won a coveted publishing contract from Oxford University Press for his forthcoming biography of Mills, based on his dissertation in history at Rochester.

But, he says, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 write a dissertation that was calculated to try to favorably impress a hiring committee. I ended up writing a dissertation about a dead, white, male anarchist, in the form of a biography, which is just about the worst set of calculations you can make.鈥�

He credits his mentors at Rochester for permitting him 鈥渢he intellectual freedom to explore lots of different traditions. I鈥檓 very grateful for that. I鈥檓 grateful that I wasn鈥檛 told that I wasn鈥檛 allowed to write for the newspapers or for magazines,鈥� he says, referring to members of the academy who discourage students from writing for nonacademic audiences.

Going from writer to editor means, of course, that he鈥檒l be responsible for maintaining the journal鈥檚 voice. To keep it as brash and uncompromising as its readers have come to expect, he鈥檒l need editorial independence.

As he continues to seek backers, he promises he鈥檒l have it. From MIT Press, he鈥檚 got it. Says Summers: 鈥淚t鈥檚 written in my own blood in the contract.鈥�