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

Introduction: The New Problem with No Name -- 1. The End of the Century -- 2. The Curse of the Robber Barons -- 3. The Mouse, Mickey Mouse, and Baby Bells -- 4. Companies That Run America -- 5. Bye, Bye, American Pie -- 6. The Making of the Corporate Mystique -- 7. Reinventing the Mystique -- 8. The Dependent Corporation -- 9. Five Reasons Americans Don't Think about Corporate Power and Why They Should -- 10. How to Be Politically Hopeful for the Next Century -- 11. Why You Shouldn't Be Liberal or Conservative -- 12. What's Right and Wrong with Corporate Responsibility -- 13. How to Be Against Corporate Power and For Business -- 14. The Global Populist -- 15. The Four Movements to Join -- 16. Why Personal Responsibility Is Not Good Enough -- Epilogue: What You Can Do Now.

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.

"Just as the original Populist movement of the nineteenth century helped dethrone the robber barons, Derber contends that a new, positive populism can help contemporary Americans regain control of their lives. In clear, straightforward language, free from the rhetoric of left or right, he calls for changes in our corporate system, changes designed to keep corporations wealthy (business leaders, take note!) while making them accountable to the people. From rewriting corporate charters to changing our consumer habits, Derber offers new visions for business and empowering strategies by which we all can make a difference."--Jacket