Overview

"Recent controversies around ESG investing and ""woke"" capital evoke an old idea: the Progressive-era vision of a socially responsible corporation. By midcentury, in fact, the notion that business leaders could benefit society had become a consensus view. But as Kyle Edward Williams's brilliant history shows, New Deal liberalism realized a kind of big business supervision narrowly focused on the financial interests of shareholders. This inadvertently laid the groundwork for a set of fringe views to become orthodoxy: that market forces should rule every facet of society. Along the way American capitalism itself was reshaped, stripping businesses to their profit-making core. As a rising tide of activists pushed corporations to account for societal harms from napalm to seatbelts to inequitable hiring, a new idea emerged: that managers could maximize value for society while still turning a maximal profit. This elusive ideal, ""stakeholder capitalism,"" still dominates our headlines today. Williams's necessary history equips us to reconsider democracy's tangled relationship with capitalism."

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Reviews

"[A] sharp study of the struggle to hold corporations accountable in the 20th century....[A] riveting look at corporations' ever-shifting role in American society.-- ""Publishers Weekly"" In this astute history, [Kyle Edward] Williams charts the evolution of the corporation into its outsized and seemingly predatory role in American life, along with prominent efforts undertaken to reform it...[T]he author's consistently lively presentation of the drama involved in battles over profits and social welfare creates an engaging narrative...A fascinating account of efforts to rein in the excesses of capitalism.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" The history of the corporation finally comes to life in Kyle Edward Williams's gripping and surprising new book. Deftly moving inside and outside the boardroom, Williams uncovers a wide cast of characters engaged in a fierce debate about the purpose of the central economic institution in American life. I know of no better single book on the relationship between corporate power and social responsibility in American life. Essential reading.--Jonathan Levy, author of Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States Do the huge corporations that now so control our economy and pollute our politics have any obligations other than the pursuit of profit? Taming the Octopus tells the surprising, chilling story of how America originally had, then lost, then gained again, and then surrendered protections--even from the Goliaths now fueling authoritarianism and ecological collapse.--Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America Fascinating and timely, Taming the Octopus is a revelatory history of the fight to make corporations more responsible to their stakeholders, and to the larger society. Kyle Edward Williams shows that social responsibility has been imposed on corporations not primarily by liberal reformers from the outside but often by business leaders themselves. A must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of corporate capitalism.--Adam Winkler, author of We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights"

"[A] bold new book...Both activist critics and paternalist CEOs [are] colorfully accounted for...An excellent vehicle for clarity.--Hamilton Craig ""Compact"" Reveal[s] how alluring narratives have nurtured corporate power...a detailed and timely history.--Adam M. Lowenstein ""The American Prospect"" [A] sharp study of the struggle to hold corporations accountable in the 20th century....[A] riveting look at corporations' ever-shifting role in American society.-- ""Publishers Weekly"" In this astute history, [Kyle Edward] Williams charts the evolution of the corporation into its outsized and seemingly predatory role in American life, along with prominent efforts undertaken to reform it...[T]he author's consistently lively presentation of the drama involved in battles over profits and social welfare creates an engaging narrative...A fascinating account of efforts to rein in the excesses of capitalism.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" The history of the corporation finally comes to life in Kyle Edward Williams's gripping and surprising new book. Deftly moving inside and outside the boardroom, Williams uncovers a wide cast of characters engaged in a fierce debate about the purpose of the central economic institution in American life. I know of no better single book on the relationship between corporate power and social responsibility in American life. Essential reading.--Jonathan Levy, author of Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States Do the huge corporations that now so control our economy and pollute our politics have any obligations other than the pursuit of profit? Taming the Octopus tells the surprising, chilling story of how America originally had, then lost, then gained again, and then surrendered protections--even from the Goliaths now fueling authoritarianism and ecological collapse.--Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America Fascinating and timely, Taming the Octopus is a revelatory history of the fight to make corporations more responsible to their stakeholders, and to the larger society. Kyle Edward Williams shows that social responsibility has been imposed on corporations not primarily by liberal reformers from the outside but often by business leaders themselves. A must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of corporate capitalism.--Adam Winkler, author of We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights"

"""The history of the corporation finally comes to life in Kyle Edward Williams’s gripping and surprising new book. Deftly moving inside and outside the boardroom, Williams uncovers a wide cast of characters engaged in a fierce debate about the purpose of the central economic institution in American life. I know of no better single book on the relationship between corporate power and social responsibility in American life. Essential reading."" -- Jonathan Levy, author of Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States ""Fascinating and timely, Taming the Octopus is a revelatory history of the fight to make corporations more responsible to their stakeholders, and to the larger society. Kyle Edward Williams shows that social responsibility has been imposed on corporations not primarily by liberal reformers from the outside but often by business leaders themselves. A must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of corporate capitalism."" -- Adam Winkler, author of We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights ""Do the huge corporations that now so control our economy and pollute our politics have any obligations other than the pursuit of profit? Taming the Octopus tells the surprising, chilling story of how America originally had, then lost, then gained again, and then surrendered protections—even from the Goliaths now fueling authoritarianism and ecological collapse."" -- Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America"

Author Information

Kyle Edward Williams, a historian of the modern United States, is senior editor of the Hedgehog Review and fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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