Constructing Corporate America: History, Politics, Culture

Lipartito (history, Florida International University) and Sicilia (history, University of Maryland) present essays on why and how the business corporation has come to exert such a powerful influence on American society. Contributors from different theoretical and historiographical traditions challenge standard assumptions about this crucial institution of capitalism. Breaking with older explanations grounded in technological determinism and neoclassical economics, they treat the corporation as a fully social institution, examining the legal and political position of the corporation, controversies surrounding corporate regulation, and the efforts of disadvantaged groups to gain access to resources that corporations control. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR