Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-60 (The History of Media and Communication)

The post-World War II years in the United States were marked by the business community's efforts to discredit New Deal liberalism and undermine the power and legitimacy of organized labor. In Selling Free Enterprise , Elizabeth Fones-Wolf describes how conservative business leaders strove to reorient workers away from their loyalties to organized labor and government, teaching that prosperity could be achieved through reliance on individual initiative, increased productivity, and the protection of personal liberty. Based on research in a wide variety of business and labor sources, this detailed account shows how business permeated every aspect of American life, including factories, schools, churches, and community institutions. Series Page Half-Title Title Copyright Contents Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction PART 1 The Postwar Employer Counteroffensive 1 Nothing Less than Catastrophic Civil War 2 Defending the Free Enterprise System: The National Political Arena PART 2 In the Factory 3 Building Company Consciousness 4 The Lighted Union Hall: Building Union Consciousness PART 3 In the Community 5 Meet Your CIO Neighbors 6 A Beachhead in the Community PART 4 Institutions 7 Educating for Capitalism: Business and the Schools 8 Walking “Hand in Hand”: Business, Labor, and Religion PART 5 After the Merger 9 A Matter of Individual Rights Conclusion Primary Sources Consulted Indexes About the Author Illustrations Illustrations During the winter of 1945-46, a strike wave of massive proportions swept the United States.