Kim phillips fein invisible hands book
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Invisible Hands
The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal
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“The riveting story of how economic conservatism became one of the leading strands in American political thought… Engaging history from a talented new scholarly voice.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Kim Phillips-Fein’s Invisible Hands… is essential reading on the history of contemporary American politics, and especially on the origins of Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy.” —Sean Wilentz, Princeton University, author of The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008”
Invisible Hands tells the story of how a small group of American businessmen succeeded in building a political movement. Long before the “culture wars” of the 1960s sparked the Republican backlash against cultural liberalism, these high-powered individuals actively resisted New Deal economics and sought to educate and organize their peers. Kim Phillips-Fein recounts the little-known efforts of men such as W. C. Mullendore, Leonard Read, and Jasper
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Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal
“A compelling and readable story of resistance to the new economic order.” —Boston Globe
In the wake of the profound economic crisis known as the Great Depression, a group of high-powered individuals joined forces to campaign against the New Deal—not just its practical policies but the foundations of its economic philosophy. The titans of the National Association of Manufacturers and the chemicals giant DuPont, together with little-known men like W. C. Mullendore, Leonard Read, and Jasper Crane, championed European thinkers Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises and their fears of the “nanny state.” Through fervent activism, fundraising, and institution-building, these men sought to educate and organize their peers as a political force to preserve their profit margins and the “American way” of doing business. In the public relations department of General Electric, they would find the perfect spokesman: Ron
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INVISIBLE HANDS
The riveting story of how economic conservatism became one of the leading strands in American political thought.
Phillips-Fein (History/New York Univ.) follows conservatism from its birth as a big-business reaction to the New Deal to its zenith as a key element of the Reagan Revolution in the early ’80s. She eschews lengthy theoretical discussion of conservatism’s laissez-faire, small-government tenets, focusing instead on the unique individuals behind the movement, beginning with the wealthy ni Pont family, who believed that New Deal economic reforms were nothing less than socialism, and eccentric, influential Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek, who shaped conservatism into a fully formed ideology. During this period, conservatism would largely remain the purview of such big-business associations as the Liberty League and the National Association of Manufacturers, but it wouldn’t remain in backrooms for long. Phillips-Fein profiles the colorful characters who