American Capitalism: Social Thought And Political Economy In The Twentieth Century (politics And Culture In Modern America)

"The intellectual history of capitalism finally gets its due in this volume of fresh, arresting essays. This book marks the willingness of a new generation of scholars to open up issues rarely addressed by the labor and business historians who until now have been our leading historians of capitalism."--David A. Hollinger, author of Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism " American Capitalism is an important contribution to our understanding of postwar American thought and culture. It will force historians to revise their pantheon of important thinkers for the period. This book reminds us how, in the postwar era, the triumph of a capitalist worldview remained open to serious questioning and alternatives."--George Cotkin, author of Existential America At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the legitimacy of American capitalism seems unchallenged. The link between open markets, economic growth, and democratic success has become common wisdom, not only among policy makers but for many intellectuals as well. In this instance, however, the past has hardly been prologue to contemporary confidence in the free market. American Capitalism presents thirteen thought-provoking essays that explain how a variety of individuals, many prominent intellectuals but others partisans in the combative world of business and policy, engaged with anxieties about the seismic economic changes in postwar America and, in the process, reconfigured the early twentieth-century ideology that put critique of economic power and privilege at its center. The essays consider a broad spectrum of figures--from C. L. R. James and John Kenneth Galbraith to Peter Drucker and Ayn Rand--and topics ranging from theories of Cold War "convergence" to the rise of the philanthropic Right. They examine how the shift away from political economy at midcentury paved the way for the 1960s and the "culture wars" that followed. Contributors interrogate what was lost and gained when intellectuals moved their focus from political economy to cultural criticism. The volume thereby offers a blueprint for a dramatic reevaluation of how we should think about the trajectory of American intellectual history in twentieth-century United States. Nelson Lichtenstein is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he directs the Center for Work, Labor, and Democracy. He is the author of Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit and State of the Union: A Century of American Labor , and editor of Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism . Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Copyight Page......Page 5 Table of Contents ......Page 6 Introduction: Social Theory and Capitalist Reality in the American Century ......Page 8 Part I: Theorizing Twentieth-Century American Capitalism ......Page 26 Chapter 1. The Postcapitalist Vision in Twentieth-Century American Social Thought ......Page 28 Chapter 2. To Moscow and Baclz: American Socinl Scientists and the Concept of Convergence ......Page 54 Part II: Liberalism and Its Social Agenda ......Page 76 Chapter 3. Clark Kerr: From the Industrial to the Knowledg Eeconomy ......Page 78 Chapter 4. John Kenneth Galbraith: Liberalism and the Politics of Cultural Critique ......Page 95 Chapter 5. The Prophet of Post-Fordism: Peter Druclzer and the Legitimation of the Corporation ......Page 116 Part III: A Critique from the Left ......Page 140 Chapter 6. C. Wright Mills and American Social Science ......Page 142 Chapter 7. C. L. R. Jnmes and the Theor! of Stnte Capitalism ......Page 164 Chapter 8. Oliver C. Cox and the Roots of World Systems Theory ......Page 182 Chapter 9. Feminism, Women's History, and American Social Thoughtnt at Midcentury ......Page 198 Part IV: The Rise of the Right ......Page 218 Chapter 10. The Rond Less Traveled: Reconsidering the Political Writings of Friedrich von Hayek ......Page 220 Chapter 11. The Politics of Rich and Rich: Postwar Investigntions of Foundntions and the Rise of the Philnnthropic Right ......Page 235 Chapter 12. American Counterrevolutionary: Lerrluel Rickettr Boulware and Genera1 Electric, 1930–1960 ......Page 256 Chapter 13. Godless Capitalism: Ayn Rand and the Conservative Movement ......Page 278 Notes......Page 298 Contributors......Page 368 Index......Page 372 Acknowledgments......Page 386 At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the legitimacy of American capitalism seems unchallenged. The link between open markets, economic growth, and democratic success has become common wisdom, not only among policy makers but for many intellectuals as well. In this instance, however, the past has hardly been prologue to contemporary confidence in the free market. "American Capitalism" presents thirteen thought-provoking essays that explain how a variety of individuals, many prominent intellectuals but others partisans in the combative world of business and policy, engaged with anxieties about the seismic economic changes in postwar America and, in the process, reconfigured the early twentieth-century ideology that put critique of economic power and privilege at its center. The essays consider a broad spectrum of figures -- from C.L.R. James and John Kenneth Galbraith to Peter Drucker and Ayn Rand -- and topics ranging from theories of Cold War "convergence" to the rise of the philanthropic Right. -- From publisher's description At the opening of the twenty-first century, the power and pervasiveness of American capitalism and of the equation that links open markets to democratic institutions has become a large part of the common wisdom.