Babson's James Hoopes Authors CORPORATE DREAMS: Big Business in American Democracy from the Great Depression to the Great Recession

WELLESLEY, Mass., Dec. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the midst of the Great Recession, it is clear that Americans have lost trust in corporations. Can we ever return to a day when the corporation could be depended on to provide for workers and their families? Should we instead consider a redefined American Dream, one that our forefathers might recognize, of self-starters, initiative, and entrepreneurship?

In CORPORATE DREAMS: Big Business in American Democracy from the Great Depression to the Great Recession (Rutgers University Press; October 26, 2011) Babson College Professor James Hoopes proposes that Americans need to radically rethink their relationships with big business and the government. Rather than buying into the corporate notion of "values-based leadership," we should view corporate leaders with the same healthy suspicion that our democratic political tradition teaches us to view our political leaders. Unfortunately, the trend is moving the other way. Corporate notions of leadership are invading our democratic political culture when it should be the reverse.

To find a way beyond our attachment to corporate models of leadership, Hoopes offers a comprehensive history of corporate culture in America, from the Great Depression to today's Great Recession. Combining a historian's careful eye with an insider's perspective on the business world, CORPORATE DREAMS tracks changes in government economic policy, changes in public attitudes toward big business, and changes in how corporate executives view themselves.

Hoopes tells a compelling story of how America lost its way, ceding authority to the policies and values of corporate culture. But he also shows us how it's not too late to return to our democratic ideals--and that it's not too late to restore the American dream.

"Hoopes seeks to resurrect in Americans a 'moderate anticorporatism' by tracing the history of corporate culture from the 1930s to the end of George W. Bush's presidency. A quick read, this title will appeal to fans of political and business history as well as those looking to better understand what led to America's latest recession." --Library Journal

About the Author
James Hoopes is Murata Professor of Business Ethics at Babson College. He has written several books, on subjects ranging from business history to American political theory, including Hail to the CEO: George W. Bush and the Failure of Moral Leadership.

http://www.babson.edu/faculty/profiles/pages/hoopes-james.aspx

CORPORATE DREAMS
Big Business in American Democracy from the Great Depression to the Great Recession
By James Hoopes
Rutgers University Press; October 26, 2011; $24.95; Paperback; ISBN: 978-0-8135-5130-2
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/corporate_dreams.html

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SOURCE Babson College