Audiobook12 hours
Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan
Written by Kim Phillips-Fein
Narrated by Lorna Raver
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Starting in the mid-1930s, a handful of prominent American businessmen forged alliances with the aim of rescuing America-and their profit margins-from socialism and the "nanny state." Long before the "culture wars" usually associated with the rise of conservative politics, these driven individuals funded think tanks, fought labor unions, and formed organizations to market their views. These nearly unknown, larger-than-life, and sometimes eccentric personalities-such as General Electric's zealous, silver-tongued Lemuel Ricketts Boulware and the self-described "revolutionary" Jasper Crane of DuPont-make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history.
The winner of a prestigious academic award for her original research on this book, Kim Phillips-Fein is already being heralded as an important new young American historian. Her meticulous research and narrative gifts reveal the dramatic story of a pragmatic, step-by-step, check-by-check campaign to promote an ideological revolution-one that ultimately helped propel conservative ideas to electoral triumph.
The winner of a prestigious academic award for her original research on this book, Kim Phillips-Fein is already being heralded as an important new young American historian. Her meticulous research and narrative gifts reveal the dramatic story of a pragmatic, step-by-step, check-by-check campaign to promote an ideological revolution-one that ultimately helped propel conservative ideas to electoral triumph.
Related to Invisible Hands
Related audiobooks
The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Neoliberalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter in America: A Cultural History of Neoliberalism, from the Sixties to the Reagan Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shattering: America in the 1960s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radicalism of the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Society: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Empire of Democracy: The Remaking of the West Since the Cold War, 1971–2017 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Age of Reform Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Own the Future: Democratic Socialism-American Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nixon's War at Home: The FBI, Leftist Guerrillas, and the Origins of Counterterrorism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Going Big: FDR's Legacy, Biden's New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
History & Theory For You
In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Democracy in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Caligula: The Mad Emperor of Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prince Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Federalist Papers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Original Argument: The Federalists' Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Human Condition: Second Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Liberty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anarchist Handbook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rights of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Treatises of Government Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Second Treatise of Government Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow the World Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 9/11 Commission Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thomas Paine's Rights of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Invisible Hands
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
22 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“The invisible hand of the market”, from Adam Smith’s “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations” is a beloved sound bite used whenever a politician wants to block or eliminate a law they see as detrimental “to business”. Like most of the beloved snippets from Smith’s most famous book it is taken out of context and misused. Kim Phillips-Fein’s book “Invisible hands : the businessmen's crusade against the New Deal” published in 2009 uses the phrase in the title of her book both ironically, she shows us just how little trust business men have in the market and literally, for the organized forces working to influence government policies to favor the wealthy and to stay hidden in the background. Phillips-Fein’s subtitle seems to imply that businessmen only became active politically after after Franklin Delano Roosevelt managed to get his “New Deal” passed into law. In fact she reveals that organized political lobby groups, although they were not called that at the time, existed as far back as the late 19th century and the “National Manufacturers Association”, an anti-labor union group. Conservatism in the first decades of the 20th century did little to hide that it favored only the wealthy, a tiny part of the voting population. Sinclair Lewis is often, incorrectly, attributed as the source for “When fascism comes to America it will be carrying a Bible and wrapped in the flag”. Whether you accept the connection between fascism and corporate political power the pro-wealth conservatives realized that religion and patriotism were good cover for policies that only served the rich. The DuPonts’ “American Liberty League” was one of the first attempts to cloak their movement in the tapestry of patriotism. Conservative activists formed “religious organizations” to push the idea that Jesus was a capitalist. The founder of these organizations confessed after retiring that he could have cared less about religion, he just wanted to save the wealthy. The group's true purposes were not that well disguised. One legislator referred to the Dupont organization as the “American Cellophane League” because, he said, it was made by the DuPonts and you could see right through it. Then came Barry Goldwater. His campaign preyed on working class discomfort with post World War Two social changes and professed that conservatives were “protecting traditional values”. What Goldwater was protecting is best expressed in something he wrote, “I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and I will do whatever it takes to keep it there.” The social turmoil of the 1960’s and 70s, Civil Rights, Feminism, anti-war protests, political scandals, the oil embargo, all set the stage for Ronald Reagan and Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy and the divisive politics of today.Phillips-Fein’s book was an eye opener for me, I thought the politics of wealth was a modern problem. I can’t recommend the book enough. It exposes the “Invisible Hands” that work to hold down the majority and make the wealthy even richer.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Meh. This one starts out great, then doesn't develop for a while, then keeps on not developing and then... ends. This is probably my fault. I was *so* happy to read a balanced account of how the institutes and think tanks and so on that fund American Conservatism (economically and intellectually) were formed. And I knew the book ended with Reagan. So I assumed that Ms Phillips-Fein would explain how the conservative movement went from a handful of small organizations with virtually no important pull to the formative political force of our time. Why did people suddenly start voting for conservative policies? Why did the Democrats suddenly start acting like libertarians? I have some ideas, but I'd like to know what P-Fein thought about this. Instead, you get fifteen pages about how Reagan wasn't getting support from large business, about how everyone really favored Carter, and then one sentence: "But in the weeks leading up to the election, the ambivalence that business leaders had expressed about Reagan in the spring disappeared," p 259. Was this an act of God? I'm pretty sure God's a socialist. Is he just testing us? Is this our Exodus? If so, where the hell is our Canaan?
To be fair, she does suggest one explanation for this in the Bibliographic Essay: "the free-market agenda in and of itself might have provided ways of bridging the divide between economic classes and creating a conservative movement, quite independent of its connection to cultural politics." This seems reasonable, and I hope she follows it up. I'm tired of reading silly arguments about how militant action in favor of the 'free market' is just racism. It's not. It is, I would say, much more terrifying.
Anyway, a well written summary of a whole range of conservative institutions, with very little pointless polemic. Can't overstate the importance of the absence of pointless polemic.