Table of Contents

Introduction: The Battle to Save Democracy

PART I – Corporations Take Over
Chapter 1: The Deciding Moment
Chapter 2: The Corporate Conquest of America

PART II – From the Birth of American Democracy through the Birth of Corporate Personhood
Chapter 3: Banding Together for the Good of “the Commons”
Chapter 4: The Boston Tea Party Revealed
Chapter 5: Jefferson Versus the Corporate Aristocracy
Chapter 6: The Early Role of Corporations in America
Chapter 7: The People’s Masters
Chapter 8: Corporations Go Global
Chapter 9: SCOTUS Takes the Presidency
Chapter 10: Protecting Corporate Liars
Chapter 11: Corporate Control of Politics

PART III – Unequal Consequences
Chapter 12: Unequal Uses for the Bill of Rights
Chapter 13: Unequal Regulation
Chapter 14: Unequal Protection from Risk
Chapter 15: Unequal Taxes
Chapter 16: Unequal Responsibility for Crime
Chapter 17: Unequal Privacy
Chapter 18: Unequal Citizenship and Access to Commons
Chapter 19: Unequal Wealth
Chapter 20: Unequal Trade
Chapter 21: Unequal Media
Chapter 22: Unequal Influence

PART IV – Restoring Personhood to People
Chapter 23: Capitalists and Americans Speak Out for Community
Chapter 24: End Corporate Personhood
Chapter 25: A New Entrepreneurial Boom
Chapter 26: A Democratic Marketplace
Chapter 27: Restoring Government of, by, and for the People
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author

About the Author

Thom Hartmann is the nation's leading progressive talk radio host, heard on over a hundred stations, as well as on XM and Sirius radio, and seen on live nationwide television via the Free Speech TV network. He is the bestselling author of eighteen books, including Threshold, Screwed, and Cracking the Code.

Reviews

“If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story.”
—Jim Hightower, national radio commentator and author of Swim Against the Current

“Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies.”
—Paul Hawken, coauthor of Natural Capitalism and author of The Ecology of Commerce

"Hartmann combines a remarkable piece of historical research with a brilliant literary style to tell the grand story of corporate corruption and its consequences for society with the force and readability of a great novel."
—David C. Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and Agenda for A New Economy