I'll be digging into the Gilded Age a bit this summer. I think there's a bit more to the story of Teddy Roosevelt and JP Morgan. To begin responding to your question, one thing that might be worth looking at is the ways laws are applied or ignored -- such as the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Very interesting. Have you seen Matt Stoller's substack "Big"? https://www.thebignewsletter.com/ I stumbled across it yesterday. A quick search reveals lots of posts related to Sherman Act. -- I'm increasingly impressed with the similarities between the Gilded Age and the Anthropocene, and there are lessons there to be learned asap, before we end up repeating mistakes that (maybe!?) ended us up in the disasters of the early 20th century. (Would love to evaluate Polanyi's take on it all in his Great Transformation. Brad deLong's book Slouching Towards Utopia argues the "long 20th c" from 1870 to 2010 is best read as an economic age.) Then there's the Hillsdale/Claremont critique of Progressivism as "the" conservative criticism, extending to this conservative brand's political positions today. I'm hardly a Progressive of the big government variety, but I certainly see how this battle of the Bigs is not only in the past but is going to be the future -- if laypeople can't rouse themselves in this so-called democracy!
I also read Big and I've considered doing Goliath in the Book Club. The Hillsdale stuff seems like I need to look at it and respond. Also the Canadian Patriot stuff on Substack.
I'll be digging into the Gilded Age a bit this summer. I think there's a bit more to the story of Teddy Roosevelt and JP Morgan. To begin responding to your question, one thing that might be worth looking at is the ways laws are applied or ignored -- such as the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Very interesting. Have you seen Matt Stoller's substack "Big"? https://www.thebignewsletter.com/ I stumbled across it yesterday. A quick search reveals lots of posts related to Sherman Act. -- I'm increasingly impressed with the similarities between the Gilded Age and the Anthropocene, and there are lessons there to be learned asap, before we end up repeating mistakes that (maybe!?) ended us up in the disasters of the early 20th century. (Would love to evaluate Polanyi's take on it all in his Great Transformation. Brad deLong's book Slouching Towards Utopia argues the "long 20th c" from 1870 to 2010 is best read as an economic age.) Then there's the Hillsdale/Claremont critique of Progressivism as "the" conservative criticism, extending to this conservative brand's political positions today. I'm hardly a Progressive of the big government variety, but I certainly see how this battle of the Bigs is not only in the past but is going to be the future -- if laypeople can't rouse themselves in this so-called democracy!
I also read Big and I've considered doing Goliath in the Book Club. The Hillsdale stuff seems like I need to look at it and respond. Also the Canadian Patriot stuff on Substack.
Oh, and taking a legal perspective is key, esp. now that we're judicializing everything ("weaponizing the judicial system")!