corporations — Bunk History

A hand reaches for stacks of coins and bills, superimposed on photos of factory smokestacks.

Profit, Power, and Purpose

The greatest challenge presented by modern corporations, small as well as large, involves purpose.

by Michael Lind via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023

Cover of "The Corporation in the Nineteenth-Century American Imagination" featuring a dragon with its tentacles entrapping people.

Between The Many and The One

Stephanie Mueller´s book sheds light on the percieved death of liberalism and the fear of corporations.

by Kevin Musgrave via The New Rambler on September 29, 2023

A businessman superimposed over the Wall Street skyline.

How Not to Tell Stories About Corporate Capitalism

Turning the history of capitalism into a morality tale about good guys and bad guys is tempting.

by Kyle Edward Williams via The Hedgehog Review on June 30, 2023

Men in suits with briefcases walking.

The Myth of the Socially Conscious Corporation

The argument that corporations have historically been a force for good—and can be again—is wishful thinking.

by Meagan Day via The New Republic on January 27, 2023

Picture of a gas pump.

High Transportation Costs Limit Mobility, Fueling Inequality

The absence of robust transportation infrastructure hurts us — and not only at the gas pump.

by Yong Kwon via Made By History on November 14, 2022

Map of the Baltimore B&O railroad

The B&O Railroad From Municipal Enterprise To Private Corporation

A cautionary tale about the costs and benefits of public/private partnerships.

by Matthew A. Crenson via The Metropole on March 9, 2022

Wayward Leviathans

How America's corporations lost their public purpose.

by David Ciepley via The Hedgehog Review on March 1, 2019

How Corporations Won Their Civil Rights

The Court got it right—but it's not a conclusion we should be entirely comfortable with.

by Robert VerBruggen via The American Conservative on July 3, 2018

The Factory That Oreos Built

A new owner for the New York City landmark offers a tasty opportunity to recap a crème-filled history.

by Katherine Martinelli via Smithsonian Magazine on May 21, 2018

Company Men

The 200-year legal struggle that led to Citizens United and gave corporations the rights of people.

by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on March 29, 2018

Multiple pieces of faces from different faces that come together to form one face

The 200-Year Legal Struggle That Led to Citizens United

How businesses campaigned to win constitutional rights and expand their political reach.

by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on March 29, 2018

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie

How a farcical series of events in the 1880s produced an enduring and controversial legal precedent.

by Adam Winkler via The Atlantic on March 5, 2018

Cover of pamphlet entitled "Defense is First at Firestone"

Patriotism and Production in World War II Corporate Publications

A Lippincott Library collection shows how, during World War II, companies highlighted their war contributions via annual reports.

by Rayna Andrews via Special Collections Cataloging at Penn on July 5, 2017

Aerial view of Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Why Are America’s Most Innovative Companies Still Stuck in 1950s Suburbia?

Suburban corporate campuses have isolated themselves by design from the communities their products were supposed to impact.

by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on April 8, 2016

Southern Pacific Railroad engine met by a crowd of people in wagons.

The Birth of Corporate Personhood

How a legal footnote in a Santa Clara County railroad case and the judges who built on it created modern models of corporate personhood.

via BackStory on June 20, 2014

Welcome to Delaware sign.

Rogue State

The case against Delaware.

by Jonathan Chait via The New Republic on August 19, 2002

Images of Lilli from the February 1956 cover of Spielzeug Export

My Search for Barbie’s Aryan Predecessor

The original doll was not made by Mattel but by a business that perfected its practice making plaster casts of Hitler.

by Tarpley Hitt via The Nation on December 6, 2025

David Rubenstein looks toward the Washington Monument.

When Donald Trump Fired David Rubenstein

The private-equity billionaire spent decades building influence in the capital. Then his philanthropy collided with the president.

by Michael Powell via The Atlantic on December 1, 2025

A smartphone screen shows a fork on a finished plate.

Who Was the Foodie?

What it would mean to take taste seriously again.

by Alicia Kennedy via The Yale Review on November 17, 2025

The Progress Paradox

Neoliberals long preached that markets and technology reinforce each other. In reality, when one develops, the other tends to stagnate.

by Matt Prewitt via Noema on November 13, 2025

Illustration of draping a Pizza Hut tarp over the Hammer and Sickle.

Pizzastroika

In 1990, one of the great forgotten acts of American subterfuge unfolded. It involved Pizza Hut.

by Josh Levin, Kelly Jones via Slate on November 13, 2025

The French battleship Richelieu being maneuvered by tugboats up the East River for repairs and refitting.

A Helluva Town

A new history of New York City during World War II captures the glory, tawdriness, poverty, narcissism, beauty, and grime of this “aggregation of villages.”

by Brenda Wineapple via New York Review of Books on October 9, 2025

An anti-capitalist political cartoon depicting a capitalist rhinoceros blocking the tracks for a train of the people.

How Capitalism Survives

According to John Cassidy’s century-spanning history "Capitalism and Its Critics," the system lives on because of its antagonists.

by Erik Baker via The Nation on September 24, 2025

Efka Pyramiden cigarette papers in a green packaging sleeve made in Nazi Germany.

Papering Over History

Efka—the German rolling paper company—was a Nazi regime favorite. After World War II, it was refashioned as a darling of the pot-infused counterculture.

by Alexandra M. Lord, Robert M. Ehrenreich via JSTOR Daily on September 24, 2025

Magazine ad for Johnson & Johnson baby products.

Licensed to Ill

The disquieting story of an American health-product giant.

by Mary Turfah via Bookforum on July 15, 2025

A magnifying glass on C. Wright Mills's book "The Power Elite."

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?

The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.

by Peter Dreier via The New Republic on May 5, 2025

Arrested demonstrators of the University of California Free Speech Movement during their trial in Berkeley, California, 1965.

America Needs a New Free Speech Movement

Donald Trump is showing us what an unaccountable class of corporate decision-makers looks like—and it looks like a lot of fear, and a terrible loss of freedom.

by Zephyr Teachout via The Nation on March 19, 2025

A bulldozer juxtapositioned with destroyed buildings and barren land.

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology can be misused.

by Joe Zadeh via Noema on February 20, 2025

A man in a suit with angel wings clipped to his back, tipping a hat with six different arms.

The Cult of the Entrepreneur

Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?

by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Republic on February 17, 2025

A drawing of a man riding a train and laying down train tracks in front of him.

The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.

by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on January 27, 2025

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