| Title | : | The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1635573572 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781635573572 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 576 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2023 |
Merchants of Doubt exposed the origins of climate change denial. Now, its authors unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma. Why do Americans believe in the “magic of the marketplace”?
The answer, as The Big Myth reveals: a propaganda blitz. Until the early 1900s, the U.S. government's guiding role in economic life was largely accepted. But then business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies combatted regulation by building a new orthodoxy: down with “big government,” up with unfettered markets. Unearthing eye-opening archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Hayek and Friedman into household names, recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books, and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine (and the young Ronald Reagan) to millions.
By the 1970s, this crusade had succeeded. Its ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us the opioid scourge, climate destruction, giant tech monopolies, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.
The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market Reviews
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Overall I enjoyed this book (even the acknowledgments). The authors give a careful background to set the stage for what is to come. After the book goes through the background, which is essential to the story) the book takes off like a rocket. I really couldn’t put the book down. I felt that all of the authors’ points are well referenced and supported. The discussion of how we got here is second to none. To me, the book had only one real weakness, and that was that it got off to a slow start with a detailed discussion and too many examples. It was fascinating but information-dense. But once the groundwork was laid, this was the best discussion of this type of material that I’ve read. Not only do I feel that this book is worth reading, I consider it a must-read. Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advance reader copy.
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I could write forever about how interesting and informative this book was! The depth of research, and the writing skills of the authors shines, on every page. A deep dive on this topic could have proven to be tedious, but Oreskes and Conway make the material as engaging as it is educational.
The pathway charted through history through the looking glass of “the market” was enlightening on many levels. The narrative starts with child labor laws (the arguments supporting child labor mirror far too closely the arguments supporting today’s topics of homo/transphobia), moves through the ways that Christianity had to evolve out of socialism (how can we scare people into believing in our doctrine if security comes from somewhere else?) and wraps up with how Reagan really got the ball rolling on modern capitalism’s ethos of only helping the five guys at the top.
The number of times I would read a line and exclaim “that actually explains so much!” cannot be overstated. The historical, economic and political knowledge gained by reading this book is vital to understanding the current political rifts over business vs. actual people. I am absolutely adding these author’s other books to my “Pre-2024 Election Reading List.” -
The Big Myth dives into the history of how businesses and think tanks pushed their libertarian view of markets/government mainstream. While the book was a bit of a necessary slow build, I really enjoyed the section about Rose Wilder Lane and how her views influenced the Little House on the Prairie books. I’d highly recommend this for anyone into history as well as politics.
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I listened to Naomi Oresks on the book in the Michael Shermer Show podcast. It is perplexing.
Oreskes cherry picks on Adam Smith, misrepresents Milton Friedman, Hayek, Ronald Reagan and libertarians.
She uses the strawman falacy against freemarket proponents depicting them as "market fundamentalists".
She misrerepresents free markets using crony capitalism examples as if they were not on opposite sides of free competition. Actually most modern crony capitalism results from government inyervention when bureaucrats are captured by businesses to prevent competition, newcomers - and Shumpeters "creative destruction".
She talks about the problems of banks and the finacial crisis, ignoring the role of central banks and public policies - including government deficits and debt. As if the libertarians and other free market proponentswhere not the main critics of the banking system. -
Just a maybe read. Other reviewers have mentioned how this book is very one-sided and extremely slanted ( cherry picking sources, straw-man logical fallacy, etc., )
