We the Corporations, Adam Winkler
We the Corporations, Adam Winkler
1 Rating(s)
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We the Corporations
How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights

Author: Adam Winkler

Narrator: William Hughes

Unabridged: 14 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/27/2018

Synopsis

In this groundbreaking portrait of corporate seizure of political power, We the Corporations reveals how American businesses won equal rights and transformed the Constitution to serve the ends of capital.Corporations—like minorities and women—have had a civil rights movement of their own and now possess nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. Uncovering the deep historical roots of Citizens United, Adam Winkler shows how that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision was the capstone of a two-hundred-year battle over corporate personhood and constitutional protections for business.Bringing to resounding life the legendary lawyers and justices involved in the corporate rights movement—among them Daniel Webster, Roger Taney, Lewis Powell, and even Thurgood Marshall—Winkler’s tour de force exposes how the nation’s most powerful corporations gained our most fundamental rights and turned the Constitution into a bulwark against the regulation of big business.

About Adam Winkler

Adam Winkler is the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America and a professor of constitutional law at the University of California–Los Angeles. He has been featured on CNN and in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Republic. A columnist for the Daily Beast, he lives in Los Angeles.

About William Hughes

William Hughes is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. A professor of political science at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, he received his doctorate in American politics from the University of California at Davis. He has done voice-over work for radio and film and is also an accomplished jazz guitarist.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ms.pegasus on February 22, 2019

In 1916 Henry Ford doubled his workers' wages and declined to raise dividends, declaring stockholders were earning enough. Regardless of his true motives, when the Dodge Brothers sued him for neglecting his fiduciary obligation to maximize profits, the supreme court of Michigan agreed with them (Dod......more

Goodreads review by Conor on February 20, 2019

If you're interested in understanding how we got to the point where corporations have more say in our democracy than The People, look no further. Adam Winkler, a professor of law at UCLA, has written a corker. I might be biased as a history nerd/major and a lawyer, but I found this history--essentia......more

Goodreads review by Maynard on May 15, 2018

I expected an uninteresting rant about the plutocracy in America --- valid but nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. But this book is a lot more interesting than that. It's a legal history describing the cases and arguments that led to the way American law conceptualizes corporations; an......more

Goodreads review by David on January 20, 2018

It is endlessly entertaining to examine Supreme Court decisions, to follow the logic and often the prejudice and corruption they comprise. We The Corporations selectively follows the tribulations of the 14th amendment, designed specifically to prevent discrimination among the newly freed slaves foll......more

Goodreads review by Mark on September 09, 2019

I picked up this book originally because a friend told me how upset she was that the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, which allows almost unlimited campaign spending by corporations, was based on the bizarre notion that the corporation is a person under the law. Adam Winkler, a professor of cons......more

Quotes

“Provides a masterful retrospective map at a time when people are feeling bewildered and enraged by growing corporate power.” New York Times

“Winkler’s deeply engaging legal history, authoritative but accessible to non-lawyers, takes readers inside courtrooms, judges’ chambers, and corporate offices…[A] meticulous, educational and thoroughly enjoyable retelling of our nation’s past.” Washington Post

"[An] elegant stitching together of 400 years of diverse cases, allowing us to feel the sweep and flow of history and the constantly shifting legal approaches to understanding this unusual entity…[the] ‘artificial person.’” New York Times Book Review

“A forceful and highly readable account of what [Winkler] convincingly describes as a ‘long, and long overlooked, corporate rights movement.’” National Book Review

“He writes with verve and humor…A tour de force of legal history, deftly told, We the Corporations encourages readers to see things from different angles and provides a kind of road map to help understand some of the big questions likely to face the courts in coming years.” Literary Hub

“Winkler’s research is impressively thorough and wide-ranging…[He] employs an evocative, fast-paced storytelling style, making for an entertaining and enlightening book.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Maddening for those who care about matters constitutional and an important document in the ongoing struggle to undo Citizens United.” Kirkus Reviews

“This timely, exciting book…[is] a field guide to the legal issues and an overview of a long-term corporate civil rights movement…Along the way, he presents a wide range of vividly drawn historical figures, bringing their philosophies, tactics, debates, and shenanigans to life while allowing readers to assess the ethics and implications of their work.” Booklist

“William Hughes narrates in a serious tone with emphatic deliberation that effectively conveys the sometimes-complex legal discussions at the heart of Winkler’s prose…Hughes proves to be engaging as he continually adjusts his voice to best deliver the vast number of details and arguments coming at the listener.” AudioFile

Awards

  • New York Times Pick
  • National Book Award
  • New York Times Book Review Notable Book
  • National Book Critics Circle Award
  • A PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book Club Pick
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