We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
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3.9 • 8 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year
A PBS “Now Read This” Book Club Selection
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Economist and the Boston Globe
A landmark exposé and “deeply engaging legal history” of one of the most successful, yet least known, civil rights movements in American history (Washington Post).
In a revelatory work praised as “excellent and timely” (New York Times Book Review, front page), Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight, once again makes sense of our fraught constitutional history in this incisive portrait of how American businesses seized political power, won “equal rights,” and transformed the Constitution to serve big business.
Uncovering the deep roots of Citizens United, he repositions that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision as the capstone of a centuries-old battle for corporate personhood. “Tackling a topic that ought to be at the heart of political debate” (Economist), Winkler surveys more than four hundred years of diverse cases—and the contributions of such legendary legal figures as Daniel Webster, Roger Taney, Lewis Powell, and even Thurgood Marshall—to reveal that “the history of corporate rights is replete with ironies” (Wall Street Journal). We the Corporations is an uncompromising work of history to be read for years to come.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were confused by the notion of “corporations are people” and didn’t know where to look for clarification—until now. In his thoroughly researched but extremely readable book, constitutional law professor Adam Winkler explains how Supreme Court rulings began to grant corporations the same political privileges enjoyed by American citizens. Winkler explores the historic influence of corporate interests on the founding of the United States and in the years since, and illustrates how free-market capitalism has been weaponized against everyday Americans to benefit corporations exclusively.
