The Roosevelt Institute 55d ago

By claiming the rights of “natural persons,” modern corporations have steadily expanded their power and influence in the United States. Conducted slowly over decades, this power grab has allowed them to peel back popular regulations and evade scrutiny. This wasn’t just a business decision: It was a political project, one that purposefully twisted the language of “identity politics” and social equality on its head to undermine progressive priorities and oppose the expansion of state power. For our April book club, the Roosevelt Institute welcomed historian Kathleen Frydl. Her new book, Liberalism and the Reinvention of the Modern Corporation, presents a searing political history of these corporate "identity politics” and places them at the heart of the modern conservative movement, the crisis of liberalism, and the fractured politics that define the current American political moment.