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After nearly a decade of bull markets, Americans have come to equate free markets with democracy. Never one for mincing words, social critic Thomas Frank, editor of The Baffler and author of The Conquest of Cool, challenges this myth. With his acerbic wit and contempt for sophistry, he declares the New Economy a fraud. Frank scours business literature, management theory, and marketing and advertising to expose the elaborate fantasies that have inoculated business against opposition. This public relations campaign joins an almost mystical belief in markets, a contempt for government in any form, and an "ecstatic" confusion of markets with democracy. Frank traces the roots of this movement from the 1920s, and sees its culmination in market populism as a fusion of the rebellious '60s with the greedy '80s. The overarching irony is the swapping of roles--suddenly Wall Street is no longer full of stodgy moneygrubbers, but cool entrepreneurs "leaping on their trampolines, typing out a few last lines on the laptop before paragliding, riding their bicycles to work, listening to Steppenwolf while they traded." Meanwhile, "Americans traded their long tradition of electoral democracy for the democracy of the supermarket, where all brands are created equal and endowed by their creators with all sorts of extremeness and diversity." Frank's close reading of the salesmen of market populism nails such financial gurus as George Gilder, Joseph Nocera, Kevin Kelly, and Thomas Friedman. Their writings, he contends, have served to make "the world safe for billionaires" by winning the cultural and political battle--legitimizing the corporate culture and its demands for privatization, deregulation, and non-interference. Frank's incisive prose verges on brilliant at times, though his yen for repetition can be exasperating. In either case, his boisterous reminder that markets are fundamentally not democracies is worth repeating as the level of wealth polarization in America reaches heights not seen since the 1920s. --Lesley Reed
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
An incisive and incendiary survey of today's cultural, political and economic landscape, social critic Frank's latest salvo conclude, that the New Economy is a fraud, management literature and theory are nothing but self-serving forms of public relations, and that, despite its self-congratulatory commercials, business is not cool. During the recent economic boom, he argues, our nation's hallowed tradition of political populism has morphed into market populism, a reverence for financial success in the marketplace as the ultimate authority of all that is good and true. Frank, founding editor of the Baffler magazine and author of The Conquest of Cool, thinks he knows who is to blame and he names names. The list is long and makes irresistible reading. Distilling vast research into highly readable volleys, he backs up his rage against the received orthodoxies of the New Economy, globalization and free markets with hard facts. He shows the resemblance between the banking crisis of the 1930s and present banking practices and demonstrates that income inequality is on the rise with the richest 10% controlling over 70% of the nation's wealth. Heaping contempt on those he views as old-fashioned hucksters turned out in hipsters' clothing, he nominates such self-proclaimed pundits as George Gilder, the Motley Fools, best-selling author Spencer Johnson and the Body Shop's Anita Roddick to his personal Hall of Shame. A fierce and informed advocate for core American political values, Frank offers a critique of the way business has taken over American society that is especially resonant in this election year. (Nov. 1)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
It was the age of the focus group, of the vox populi transformed into flesh, descended to earth and holding forth majestically in poll results, in town hall meetings, in brand loyalty demographics, in e-mail bulletin boards, in website hits, in browser traffic. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
It was the age of the focus group, of the vox populi transformed into flesh, descended to earth and holding forth majestically in poll results, in town hall meetings, in brand loyalty demographics, in e-mail bulletin boards, in website hits, in browser traffic. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
What's the fuss all about?,
By A Customer
This review is from: One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy (Paperback)
This thoughtful, well researched, highly praised, and cogently written book was published three years ago, so why all the recent vitriol from negative reviewers? In fact, these harshly negative reviewers are *really* annoyed at the favorable response to the author's new book (see the just-published WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?). And in their zeal to trash the author and his useful discussion of how conservative voters have ceded their own true economic interests to calculated -- but essentially dead-end -- appeals to conservative values, these frustrated rightwing critics have extended their campaign to all things Tom Frank-related. If they actually read any of Frank's books, they might find much in his work that is sympathetic and fair-minded. Unfortunately, they have yielded to the right-wing preference for shrillness and black and white thinking over nuanced argument and real debate (but alas, that's what's the matter with liberals). Ignore the bombast and read this book -- and decide for yourself.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Big Bubble Bursting BUMMER,
By Y. Frost "Red" (NY,NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism and the End of Economic Democracy (Hardcover)
This book is devastating. I struggled so hard to read the first 50 pages. I learned about his thesis: Market Populism.BUT, the witty, tongue-in-cheek, op-ed type voice is extremely difficult to read and unbelievably redundant. Its like reading a million witty, sharp-tongued op-ed pieces. Great point he's trying to make, but amazingly frustrating to read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bursting the bubble,
By
This review is from: One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy (Paperback)
Thomas Frank's One Market Under God is an important book and offers interesting insights into the stock market hysteria of the nineties while capturing the sense of delusion of those who remained bewildered in the economic sidelines. Frank academically dissects the New Economy and reveals its emptiness. It's a sort of "Extraordinary delusions and the Madness of Crowds" of the modern age. While Frank's style may be pedantic at times, he reveals a pungent and welcome sarcasm that we'll have you laughing in revenge at all the hype of the market and its instruments form 'lifestyle' magazines to over-produced television commercials. One of his biggest and most effective targets is the magazine "Fast Company". The main argument of the book is that in the nineties the public at large has been convinced that markets were the ideal solution to all ills, social and economic. This occurred to such a degree that the market champions became popular heroes, while the snobs were those who criticized or were skeptical of the market's all-powerful mantra. Frank presents the media and corporate manufacture of the rhetoric and - let's say it 'frankly' propaganda'- that fueled the market bubble and myth as the Keynesian economic system was rapidly being dismantled under our noses. I recommend reading this entertaining as well as thorough analysis with another fascinating look at the emergence of market economics dominance, "Turbo Capitaliosm" by Edward Luttwak and "Globalization and its Discontents" by Jospeh Stiglitz - ironically one of Bill Clinton's top economic advisers. Also look for Thomas Frank's articles in the magazine he edits "The Baffler".
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