In our 21st-century Gilded Age, Freedom from the Market offers a language to reclaim the 'checks and hard boundaries' that once existed between markets and citizens ... What accounts, though, for the success of a reactionary countermovement that has pushed the country alarmingly close to oligarchy? A full answer is beyond Freedom from the Market, even as Konczal explains how political decisions over the past 40 years have enabled the market to overrun our lives. Part of this owes to the book’s structure: its purpose is to demonstrate that the erosion of democracy can be reversed ... Konczal deftly captures how a vast conservative network emerged to attenuate the social contract that evolved from the New Deal era through the 1960s ... Konczal’s real audience is the party upon which American democracy now depends.
Many of Mr. Konczal’s complaints aren’t, by my reckoning, against markets themselves but against various sorts of cronyism and even government itself ... Mr. Konczal has no great talent for describing the views of those with whom he disagrees in ways they would appreciate.
This well-researched book provides a detailed history of the regulations and their ultimate benefit to both the American public and the free market ... Providing solid cases where government regulations helped to give Americans a better life, this will appeal to progressives looking for a history of their movement.
... persuasive and methodical ... With carefully selected examples and lucid prose, Konczal makes a convincing case that the American project has long depended on rigorous regulation of capitalism. Progressive voters and policy makers will find plenty of ammunition for their arguments in this cogent history.
