Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of DemocracyBerrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005 M09 11 - 312 pages The corporation has become the core institution of the modern world. Designed to seek profit and power, it has pursued both with endless tenacity, steadily bending the framework of law and even challenging the sovereign status of the state. After selling his successful computer book publishing business to a large corporation, Ted Nace felt increasingly driven to find answers to questions about where the corporation came from, how it got so much power, and where it is going. In Gangs of America he details the rise of corporate power in America through a series of fascinating stories, each organized around a different facet of the central question: “How did corporations get more rights than people?” Nace traces the events and people that have shaped the modern corporation to give us a fascinating look into the rise of corporate power. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
How Did Corporations Get So Much Power? In which the author reads a poll feels provoked and befuddled and organizes his investigation | 11 |
From Street Fights to Empire The British roots of the American corporation 12671773 | 19 |
The Ultimate Reality Show The brutal history of the Virginia Company 16071624 | 30 |
Why the Colonists Feared Corporations In which the citizens of Boston demonstrate the use of the hatchet as an antimonopoly device 17701773 | 38 |
And What They Did About It How the framers of the American system restrained corporate power 17871850 | 46 |
The Genius The man who reinvented the corporation 18501880 | 56 |
Superpowers The corporation acquires nine powerful attributes 18601900 | 70 |
Judicial Yoga The tangled logic of corporate rights | 161 |
Crime Wave The roots of the scandals of 2002 | 178 |
Global Rule How international trade agreements are creating new corporate rights | 187 |
Fighting Back A movement emerges to challenge corporate hegemony | 197 |
Intelligent Amoral Evolving The hazards of persistent dynamic entities | 219 |
So Whats the Alternative? The vision of economic democracy | 230 |
Supreme Court Decisions | 243 |
The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment | 251 |
The Judge Stephen Field and the politics of personhood 18681885 | 87 |
The Court Reporter Who really decided the Supreme Courts most important corporate case? 1886 | 102 |
The LavenderVested Turkey Gobbler How a majestic supereminent lawyer deceived the Supreme Court 1883 | 110 |
Survival of the Fittest People power versus a social Darwinist agenda 18861937 | 118 |
The Revolt of the Bosses The new mobilization of corporate political power 19712002 | 137 |
Speech Money Using the First Amendment to block campaign finance reform | 152 |
Other editions - View all
Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy Ted Nace Limited preview - 2003 |
Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy Ted Nace Limited preview - 2003 |
Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy Ted Nace No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
ACLU activists American Bill of Rights Boston British California campaign finance campaign finance reform capital century citizens colony committee company’s Conkling corporate personhood corporate political corporate power corporate rights created Democracy democratic doctrine East India Company economic Electric employees Enron enterprise entity environmental equal protection ExxonMobil federal Fong Foo Fourteenth Amendment global Grameen guilds historian human rights incorporation industry institutions investors issue labor large corporations legislation legislature limited Linebaugh and Rediker ment million modern corporation movement NAFTA National organization ownership Pacific PACs pany Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Railroad percent person personhood porations railroad rationale regulation restrictions ruled Santa Clara decision Scott shareholders social society Southern Pacific Railroad Stephen Field substantive due process Supreme Court tion Tom Scott Trade U.S. Supreme Court Union United University Press Virginia Company workers wrote York