Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-278) and index.

Introduction: What is the corporation good for? -- The new princes of industry -- The single and most serious danger -- Building the city of god -- Fighting for jobs -- "A bundle of assets" -- The rise of the corporate guerrilla fighter -- Making social responsibility corporate -- "There is no such thing as a corporate responsibility" -- Nothing to ask permission for -- Conclusion: Larry Fink, president of the world.

"In this vivid and surprising history, we meet activists, investors, executives, and workers who fought over a simple question: Is the role of the corporation to deliver profits to shareholders, or something more? On one side were "business statesmen" who believed corporate largess could solve social problems. On the other were libertarian intellectuals such as Milton Friedman and his oft-forgotten contemporary, Henry Manne, whose theories justified the ruthless tactics of a growing class of corporate raiders. But Williams reveals that before the "activist investor" emerged as a capitalist archetype, Civil Rights groups used a similar playbook for different ends, buying shares to change a company from within.As a rising tide of activists pushed corporations to account for societal harms from napalm to environmental pollution to inequitable hiring, a new idea emerged: that managers could maximize value for society while still turning a maximal profit. This elusive ideal, "stakeholder capitalism," still dominates our headlines today. Williams's necessary history equips us to reconsider democracy's tangled relationship with capitalism."--