Short Synopsis
Award-winning historian Kim Phillips-Fein offers a narrative history of the influential businessmen who fought to roll back the New Deal.

Full Synopsis
Starting in the mid-1930s, a handful of prominent American businessmen forged alliances with the aim of rescuing America—and their profit margins—from socialism and the "nanny state." Long before the "culture wars" usually associated with the rise of conservative politics, these driven individuals funded think tanks, fought labor unions, and formed organizations to market their views. These nearly unknown, larger-than-life, and sometimes eccentric personalities—such as General Electric's zealous, silver-tongued Lemuel Ricketts Boulware and the self-described "revolutionary" Jasper Crane of DuPont—make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history.

The winner of a prestigious academic award for her original research on this book, Kim Phillips-Fein is already being heralded as an important new young American historian. Her meticulous research and narrative gifts reveal the dramatic story of a pragmatic, step-by-step, check-by-check campaign to promote an ideological revolution—one that ultimately helped propel conservative ideas to electoral triumph.

"Engaging history from a talented new scholarly voice." ---Kirkus Starred Review

"Incisive.... An important contribution to our understanding of American conservatism." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"Compelling" ---The Boston Globe

Kirkus Review

Publishers Weekly Review