Malcolm Harris

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}

{{Short description|American journalist, critic and editor}}

{{infobox person

|name=Malcolm Harris

|birth_date={{birth year and age|1988}}

|birth_place=Santa Cruz, California, U.S.

|alma_mater=University of Maryland

|occupation={{flatlist|

  • Journalist
  • critic
  • editor

}}

|image=Malcolm Harris at Politics and Prose (cropped).jpg

|caption=Harris in 2023

}}

Malcolm Harris (born 1988){{cite web|access-date=September 28, 2019|title='Kids These Days' Convinces You That Millennials Aren't Ruining Everything|url=https://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/11/07/kids-these-days-review|website=www.wbur.org|date=November 7, 2017 |archive-date=September 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928052417/https://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/11/07/kids-these-days-review|url-status=live}} is an American journalist, critic, and editor based on the East Coast.{{cite news |access-date=September 28, 2019 |url=https://www.ft.com/content/8e3e2a4a-bf11-11e7-823b-ed31693349d3 |website=Financial Times |first1=Yohann |last1=Koshy |date=November 3, 2017 |title=Kids These Days by Malcolm Harris — no free brunch |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928051929/https://www.ft.com/content/8e3e2a4a-bf11-11e7-823b-ed31693349d3 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |url=https://www.altaonline.com/books/nonfiction/a42859624/malcolm-harris-palo-alto-book-review-zan-romanoff/ |title=Silicon Valley Is Everywhere |work=Alta On Line |location=San Francisco |first=Zan |last=Romanoff |date=February 20, 2023 |access-date=June 22, 2024 |quote=He was born in Santa Cruz in 1988; his family moved to Palo Alto when he was in elementary school. (Harris now lives in Washington, D.C.) }}

He is an editor at The New Inquiry and wrote Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials (2017). Harris was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Early life and education

Harris was born in Santa Cruz, California, and grew up in nearby Palo Alto after his family moved there while he was in grade school. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 2010.{{cite web |first1=|last1= |access-date=June 28, 2023 |title=Hachettte profile: Malcolm Harris |url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/malcolm-harris/?lens=little-brown |website=Hachette Book Group |date=June 28, 2017}}

Career

Harris is an editor at the online magazine The New Inquiry.{{cite web |first1=Sean |last1=Illing |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Why are millennials burned out? Capitalism. |url=https://www.vox.com/2019/2/4/18185383/millennials-capitalism-burned-out-malcolm-harris |date=February 4, 2019 |website=Vox |archive-date=October 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007154201/https://www.vox.com/2019/2/4/18185383/millennials-capitalism-burned-out-malcolm-harris |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://thenewinquiry.com/about/ |title=About: Contributing Editors |work=The New Inquiry |date= October 17, 2016|access-date=June 22, 2024 }}

Harris was "heavily involved" in the Occupy Wall Street movement.{{cite web |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Kids These Days and iGen: two competing visions of what makes a millennial |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/11/kids-these-days-and-igen-two-competing-visions-what-makes-millennial|website=www.newstatesman.com |date=November 13, 2017 |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928052415/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/11/kids-these-days-and-igen-two-competing-visions-what-makes-millennial |url-status=live}} In 2012, he pleaded guilty and was convicted of disorderly conduct for his participation in an October 2011 Occupy protest on the Brooklyn Bridge. The court case became "a significant focus of attention for its involvement of posts to social networking sites and legal arguments over who controls that material",{{cite news |first1=Russ |last1=Buettner |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Malcolm Harris Pleads Guilty Over 2011 March |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/nyregion/malcolm-harris-pleads-guilty-over-2011-march.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 12, 2012 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928073319/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/nyregion/malcolm-harris-pleads-guilty-over-2011-march.html |url-status=live}}{{cite web |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Judge: Twitter Must Turn Over Protester's Tweets Or Face Hefty Fine |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/twitter-occupy-malcolm-harris_n_1874079|date=September 11, 2012 |website=HuffPost |archive-date=August 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802214321/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/twitter-occupy-malcolm-harris_n_1874079 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first1=Kim |last1=Zetterv|access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Twitter Fights Back to Protect 'Occupy Wall Street' Protester |url=https://www.wired.com/2012/08/twitter-appeals-occupy-order/ |newspaper=Wired |date=August 27, 2012 |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715054318/https://www.wired.com/2012/08/twitter-appeals-occupy-order/ |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first1=Matt |last1=Williams |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Twitter complies with prosecutors to surrender Occupy activist's tweets |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/sep/14/twitter-complies-occupy-activist-tweets |newspaper=The Guardian |date=September 14, 2012 |issn=0261-3077|archive-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717031719/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/sep/14/twitter-complies-occupy-activist-tweets |url-status=live}} as the prosecution sought to undermine his defense using his own Twitter posts which he had deleted.

Harris's 2017 book, Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials, is a social critique of American millennials as human capital.{{cite web |first1=Jacqui |last1=Shine |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Won't Get Fooled Again: Malcolm Harris's "Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/wont-get-fooled-again-malcolm-harriss-kids-these-days-human-capital-and-the-making-of-millennials/ |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=November 26, 2017 |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928052416/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/wont-get-fooled-again-malcolm-harriss-kids-these-days-human-capital-and-the-making-of-millennials/ |url-status=live}}{{cite web |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials |url=https://thehumanist.com/arts_entertainment/books/book-review-kids-days-human-capital-making-millennials |date=April 26, 2018|website=TheHumanist.com |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928052417/https://thehumanist.com/arts_entertainment/books/book-review-kids-days-human-capital-making-millennials |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first1=Stephanie|last1=Mehta |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=Review |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/knocking-down-generalizations-about-the-millennial-generation/2018/01/05/88e7d4b8-dead-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html|newspaper=Washington Post |date=January 5, 2018 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605112008/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/knocking-down-generalizations-about-the-millennial-generation/2018/01/05/88e7d4b8-dead-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html |url-status=live}}{{cite web|accessdate=September 28, 2019 |title=How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work |website=BuzzFeed News |date=January 5, 2019 |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928093411/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work |url-status=live}} In it, he explores the economic, social, and political conditions and institutions that nurtured American millennials and shaped them into a distinct group.{{cite web |access-date=September 28, 2019 |title=The Kids Aren't Alright |url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/malcolm-harris-kids-these-days-review-millennials-capitalism |website=Dissent Magazine |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928052416/https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/malcolm-harris-kids-these-days-review-millennials-capitalism |url-status=live}} Yohann Koshy wrote in the Financial Times that Harris argues that "society conspires to make life worse for young people", that "millennials are producing lots of value at work that is not reflected in job quality or wages", and that much of this applies to Britain too.

During the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, Harris devoted time to writing about his home town, Palo Alto, California. He felt that he did not understand his home state or the suburb of Palo Alto until he left for college on the East Coast, at the University of Maryland. The resulting book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, which was published in February 2023, details the history of that city and its role in the 21st-century U.S. economy, which is largely defined by the Internet and the electronic devices produced by people, companies and financial capital in Silicon Valley. One review of the book said that it was “nominally a history, but it is really a work of grand theory … Marxism” and describes a “capitalist horror show”, with little positive balance to the criticisms of the faults of capitalism.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/14/books/malcolm-harris-palo-alto.html?unlocked_article_code=1.100.z5RS.-ySjvSZEzTca&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare |work=The New York Times |date=February 14, 2023 |access-date=June 22, 2024 |first=Gary |last=Kamiya |title=Can One City Be a Microcosm of Everything That's Wrong? }}

Personal life

He lives in the East Coast of US, including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, New York.{{cite web |url=https://thenewinquiry.com/author/malcolm-harris/ |title=Malcolm Harris |work=The New Inquiry |date= July 6, 2016|access-date=June 22, 2024 |quote=writer and editor living in Brooklyn }}

Publications

  • {{Cite book |title=Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2017 |isbn=978-0316510868 |publication-place=New York}}
  • {{Cite book |title=Shit Is Fucked Up and Bullshit: History Since the End of History |publisher=Melville House |year=2020 |isbn=9781612198378}}{{Cite web |url=https://spectrumculture.com/2020/04/02/shit-is-fucked-up-and-bullshit-by-malcolm-harris-review/ |title=Shit Is Fucked Up and Bullshit: by Malcolm Harris |date=April 2, 2020 |access-date=September 4, 2022 |last=Maxton |first=Ian |work=Spectrum Culture}}
  • {{Cite book |title=Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2023 |isbn=9780316592031}}
  • {{Cite book |title=What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis |publisher=Hachette Book Group |year=2025 |isbn=9781668646861}}

See also

References

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