Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class

The story of a disillusioned generation that set out to reclaim its dignity and take on corporate America.

Since the Great Recession, recent college grads have confronted an alarming reality: the economic engine that propelled earlier generations into the middle class has begun to stall out. Millions of workers with degrees have faced crushing debt while settling for jobs below their qualifications.

The anger of this college-educated working class finally boiled over during the Covid pandemic, when workers at companies like Apple and Starbucks shocked corporate America by voting to unionize. Not long after, the veteran New York Times reporter Noam Scheiber met Chaya Barrett, a charming, capable college grad and eight-year Apple employee who stood up and helped organize her coworkers at an Apple store near Baltimore.

While following Barrett and her cohort as their seemingly spontaneous rebellion spread far and wide--to college-educated workers at Apple stores and Starbucks cafés, across video-game studios, and even to Hollywood's writers' rooms--Scheiber realized he was witnessing something deep and lasting. Mutiny is the revelatory account of a generation made confident by their historic educational achievements, only to become disillusioned when their degrees yielded far less than they were taught to expect.

Scheiber paints a portrait of this new working class with vivid detail and striking empathy while telling the dramatic story of its revolt against the status quo. He explains how it has been further fueled by recent developments, like the proliferation of artificial intelligence and the war in Gaza, and why the college-educated working class will continue to rear its head in the workplace and in national politics for years to come.