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A hand reaches for stacks of coins and bills, superimposed on photos of factory smokestacks.

Profit, Power, and Purpose

The greatest challenge presented by modern corporations, small as well as large, involves purpose.
by Michael Lind via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023
Cover of "The Corporation in the Nineteenth-Century American Imagination" featuring a dragon with its tentacles entrapping people.

Between The Many and The One

Stephanie Mueller´s book sheds light on the percieved death of liberalism and the fear of corporations.
by Kevin Musgrave via The New Rambler on September 29, 2023
A businessman superimposed over the Wall Street skyline.

How Not to Tell Stories About Corporate Capitalism

Turning the history of capitalism into a morality tale about good guys and bad guys is tempting.
by Kyle Edward Williams via The Hedgehog Review on June 30, 2023
Men in suits with briefcases walking.

The Myth of the Socially Conscious Corporation

The argument that corporations have historically been a force for good—and can be again—is wishful thinking.
by Meagan Day via The New Republic on January 27, 2023
Picture of a gas pump.
partner

High Transportation Costs Limit Mobility, Fueling Inequality

The absence of robust transportation infrastructure hurts us — and not only at the gas pump.
by Yong Kwon via Made By History on November 14, 2022
Map of the Baltimore B&O railroad

The B&O Railroad From Municipal Enterprise To Private Corporation

A cautionary tale about the costs and benefits of public/private partnerships.
by Matthew A. Crenson via The Metropole on March 9, 2022

Wayward Leviathans

How America's corporations lost their public purpose.
by David Ciepley via The Hedgehog Review on March 1, 2019

How Corporations Won Their Civil Rights

The Court got it right—but it's not a conclusion we should be entirely comfortable with.
by Robert VerBruggen via The American Conservative on July 3, 2018

The Factory That Oreos Built

A new owner for the New York City landmark offers a tasty opportunity to recap a crème-filled history.
by Katherine Martinelli via Smithsonian on May 21, 2018

Company Men

The 200-year legal struggle that led to Citizens United and gave corporations the rights of people.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on March 29, 2018
Multiple pieces of faces from different faces that come together to form one face

The 200-Year Legal Struggle That Led to Citizens United

How businesses campaigned to win constitutional rights and expand their political reach.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on March 29, 2018

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie

How a farcical series of events in the 1880s produced an enduring and controversial legal precedent.
by Adam Winkler via The Atlantic on March 5, 2018
Cover of pamphlet entitled "Defense is First at Firestone"

Patriotism and Production in World War II Corporate Publications

A Lippincott Library collection shows how, during World War II, companies highlighted their war contributions via annual reports.
by Rayna Andrews via Special Collections Cataloging at Penn on July 5, 2017

Why Are America’s Most Innovative Companies Still Stuck in 1950s Suburbia?

Suburban corporate campuses have isolated themselves by design from the communities their products were supposed to impact.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on April 8, 2016
Southern Pacific Railroad engine met by a crowd of people in wagons.
partner

The Birth of Corporate Personhood

How a legal footnote in a Santa Clara County railroad case and the judges who built on it created modern models of corporate personhood.
via BackStory on June 20, 2014
Welcome to Delaware sign.

Rogue State

The case against Delaware.
by Jonathan Chait via The New Republic on August 19, 2002
A magnifying glass on C. Wright Mills's book "The Power Elite."

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?

The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.
by Peter Dreier via The New Republic on May 5, 2025
Arrested demonstrators of the University of California Free Speech Movement during their trial in Berkeley, California, 1965.

America Needs a New Free Speech Movement

Donald Trump is showing us what an unaccountable class of corporate decision-makers looks like—and it looks like a lot of fear, and a terrible loss of freedom.
by Zephyr Teachout via The Nation on March 19, 2025
A bulldozer juxtapositioned with destroyed buildings and barren land.

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology can be misused.
by Joe Zadeh via Noema on February 20, 2025
A man in a suit with angel wings clipped to his back, tipping a hat with six different arms.

The Cult of the Entrepreneur

Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?
by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Republic on February 17, 2025
A drawing of a man riding a train and laying down train tracks in front of him.

The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.
by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on January 27, 2025
Nancy Pelosi standing next to a sign that says "Protecting America's Health Care."

UnitedHealthcare’s Decades-Long Fight to Block Reform

UnitedHealthcare, the health insurer whose CEO was murdered, has spent decades fighting and winning political battles to maintain the for-profit health system.
by Branko Marcetic via Jacobin on December 21, 2024
Photo illustration of Luigi Mangione and John Dillinger.

Why the CEO Shooter Makes the Perfect American Folk Hero

Our country has a long history of admiring particular acts of violence.
by Elliott Gorn via Slate on December 18, 2024
The edges of two credit cards, prominently displaying the MasterCard and Visa logos.

Our Plastic Obsession

The story of credit cards is the story of industry versus regulators. Industry won.
by Richard Vague via Democracy Journal on December 12, 2024
John Sherman
partner

The Other Sherman’s March

How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power.
by Richard R. John via HNN on October 22, 2024
Dole pineapple cookbook featuring a pineapple upside down cake and a can of Dole sliced pineapple.

American Food Traditions That Started as Marketing Ploys

Your grandma didn't invent that recipe.
by Diana Hubbell via Atlas Obscura on September 30, 2024
The recycling symbol.

How the Recycling Symbol Got America Addicted to Plastic

Corporations sold Americans on the chasing arrows — while stripping the logo of its worth.
by Kate Yoder via Grist on June 12, 2024
A stylized drawing of an insulin vial.

The Insulin Empire

Insulin transforms a sick body. It also has the potential to reconstitute our political economic realities.
by Edward Ongweso Jr., Athena Sofides via The Baffler on May 30, 2024
Star-Herb Medicines and Teas for all Diseases, 1923.

How Government Helped Birth the Advertising Industry

Advertising went from being an embarrassing activity to a legitimate part of every company’s business plans—despite scant evidence that it worked.
by Livia Gershon, Daniel Navon via JSTOR Daily on May 17, 2024
Illustration of a man typing on his laptop on a rollercoaster ride.

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
by Erik Baker via The New Yorker on May 1, 2024
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