Books in Brief
Revolt of the Masscult by Chris Lehmann (Prickly Paradigm, 79 pp., $10). In this, the seventh in a series of pamphlets by the oddly named Prickly Paradigm Press, Washington Post Book World deputy editor Chris Lehmann argues for Culture–with a capital C–against its many enemies, foreign and domestic. These include capitalism, anti-intellectualism, anti-elitism, and a whole host of hobgoblins.
“Revolt of the Masscult” relates at length the 2001 flap over novelist Jonathan Franzen’s impolitic comments about Oprah’s book club. These stray words led to his being disinvited from her show and, arguably, to the death of one of the biggest cash cows in the history of publishing. The fact that one woman could wield so much influence is proof for Lehmann that mass culture is in no way democratic: “Who died and made Oprah queen?”
Lehmann means more by “Culture” than an entertaining way to pass the time (the popular view) or a way to fashion an identity (the emerging consumerist view). Rather, it is “that open-ended realm in which private tastes, disputations, entertainments, ideas, character, and beliefs all get tempered or argued through and revised by contact with the wider public world.” This cross-pollination is said to fertilize our values, taste, philosophical argumentation, social concern, and even religious sensibilities. It is possible–perhaps even necessary–to disagree with Lehmann’s vision and still marvel at its Whitmanesque reach.
–Jeremy Lott
The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (Modern Library, 227 pp., $19.95). The Left hates corporations, conservatives genuflect before them, and every human being on the globe interacts with them. But it’s not obvious why humankind should conduct commerce through non-human entities that have distinctly human rights to sign contracts and buy property–while enjoying limited liability, unlimited life spans, and the ability to reproduce at will.
In this short, delightful history of the corporation, Micklethwait and Wooldridge, both staff writers for the Economist, delve into the corporation’s history, covering topics ranging from ancient trading partnerships to 2002’s Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reform act.
While those who have read Alfred Chandler’s “The Visible Hand” and Peter Drucker’s “Concept of the Corporation” won’t learn much new, Micklethwait and Wooldridge provide a clear outline of the corporation’s history. While most educated people tend to believe corporations sprang full-grown from the joint-stock companies chartered to explore the New World and finance public works in early modern Europe, the reality is more complex. Some businesses trace their roots back to the high Middle Ages and the corporation has seen plenty of ups and downs since the creation of the first joint-stock enterprises.
“The Company” provides a largely positive view of the corporation’s development. Yes, corporations have sometimes been conspiratorial, but, more often than not, they have created wealth, improved standards of living and, in so doing, advanced human liberty. Interestingly, Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue that even as corporations have grown in economic influence, they have declined in political power: While the British East India company ran an entire country, and ITT engineered Latin American coups in the 1970s, today’s largest company–Wal-Mart–is “simply rather good at retailing.”
The two authors also do a good job busting cherished populist myths: The junk-bond financed buyouts of the 1980s actually created jobs, while multinational companies pay above-average wages throughout the developing world. In the end, Micklethwait and Wooldridge conclude that corporations deserve “at least a round of applause” for what they have done for the world.
–Eli Lehrer
