Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class
By Noam Scheiber
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 384 pages, $32
In 1912, dozens of Harvard students skipped their exams in order to help break up one of the biggest labor confrontations of the early twentieth century: the International Workers of the World (IWW)-led textile workers’ strike. All union-busting students received an automatic Gentlemen’s C on their midterms. For these students, this represented not just a chance to get college credit for making trouble, but to assert their class privilege.
Since the foundation of the United States, a university education has been a ticket to the ranks of the economic, political, and social elites. That meant most college grads saw their economic interests aligned with those of big business, not the labor movement. But the days when a bachelor’s degree served as a guarantee of economic security are long gone. Starting in 2022, the unemployment rate among college graduates exceeded the national rate. And by some accounts, the growth of AI is keeping it high. In March, The New York Times reported that it could be the worst spring since the pandemic for recently-degreed job seekers. Unlike their counterparts a hundred years ago, many of today’s students and recent graduates are throwing their support behind the labor movement. The transformation of this once-privileged demographic is the focus of Noam Scheiber’s Mutiny: The Rise of the Revolt of the College-Educated Working-Class.