In the spring of 2022, a group of Chicago Starbucks workers and organizers sat together after filing their union election paperwork, radiating pride and anxiety. When the logistical talk had wound down and everyone had fallen silent, one worker noted that “this is the first time I’ve felt purpose in a really long time.”

Noam Scheiber’s book Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class is filled with moments like these, where millennial and Gen Z workers struggle with the operational, emotional, legal, and political contours of organizing at work. Scheiber, a New York Times workplace and labor reporter, layers the stories of four primary protagonists onto analyses of the US labor movement, changes in university education, and the shifting life trajectories and political commitments of many working Americans under the age of forty.

Mutiny showcases Scheiber’s ability to illustrate the lives of his subjects. While the author draws on wide-ranging interviews and research, the book is structured around the workplace organizing experiences of Teddy (the Chicago barista), Chaya (an Apple Store employee in Maryland), Andrés (a video game tester in Texas), and Sydney (a unionized television writer). They form a diverse cohort in terms of race, gender, and life experience.