Corporation Nation: How Corporations are Taking Over Our Lives -- and What We Can Do About It

Front Cover
Macmillan, 2000 M04 10 - 384 pages

Foreword by Ralph Nader. In Corporation Nation Derber addresses the unchecked power of today's corporations to shape the way we work, earn, buy, sell, and think—the very way we live. Huge, far-reaching mergers are now commonplace, downsizing is rampant, and our lines of communication, news and entertainment media, jobs, and savings are increasingly controlled by a handful of global—and unaccountable—conglomerates. We are, in effect, losing our financial and emotional security, depending more than ever on the whim of these corporations. But it doesn't have to be this way, as this book makes clear. Just as the original Populist movement of the nineteenth century helped dethrone the robber barons, Derber contends that a new, positive populism can help the U.S. workforce regain its self-control.

Drawing on core sociological concepts and demonstrating the power of the sociological imagination, he calls for revisions in our corporate system, changes designed to keep corporations healthy while also making them answerable to the people. From rewriting corporate charters to altering consumer habits, Derber offers new aims for businesses and empowering strategies by which we all can make a difference.

 

Contents

ONE The End of the Century
11
TWO The Curse of the Robber Barons
29
THREE The Mouse Mickey Mouse and Baby Bells
49
FOUR Companies That Run America
73
FIVE Bye Bye American Pie
92
SIX The Making of the Corporate Mystique
118
SEVEN Reinventing the Mystique
137
EIGHT The Dependent Corporation
155
TEN How to be Politically Hopeful for the Next Century
187
ELEVEN Why You Shouldnt Be Liberal or Conservative
196
TWELVE Whats Right and Wrong with Corporate
221
THIRTEEN How to Be Against Corporate Power and
242
FOURTEEN The Global Populist
272
FIFTEEN The Four Movements to Join
289
SIXTEEN Why Personal Responsibility Is Not Good Enough
310
Copyright

NINE Five Reasons Americans Dont Think About
172

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2000)

Charles Derber, professor of sociology at Boston College and noted social critic, is the author of The Wilding of America.

Bibliographic information