In Corporate Dreams, James Hoopes combines a historian’s careful eye with an insider’s perspective on the business world. This provocative volume tracks changes in government economic policy, changes in public attitudes toward big business, and changes in how corporate executives view themselves. Whether examining the rise of Leadership Development programs or recounting JFK’s Pyrrhic victory over U.S. Steel, Hoopes tells a compelling story of how America lost its way, ceding authority to the policies and values of corporate culture.

Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Corporate American Dream at Its Height and in Its Origins 1. The Corporate American Dream 2. Corporate and National Character 3. From Public Purpose to Private Profit 4. Corporations as Enemies of the Free Market Part II. Corporate Failure and Government Fix 5. Corporate Crashes 6. Managers versus Markets 7. Corporations Blow Their Chance to End the Depression 8. Roosevelt's Confused Anticorporatism Part III. The Corporation Strikes Back 9. The Right to Manage 10. Corporations Recover Their Moral Authority 11. Killing the Unions Softly 12. Creating Reagan and His Voters Part IV. What Manner of Man(ager)? 13. Masking the Arrogance of Power 14. Responsibility versus Profit at General Motors 15. Critics of Managerial Character 16. JFK's Pyrrhic Victory over U.S. Steel Part V. The Corporation in the Wilderness Again 17. McNamara and the Staffers 18. The False Confidence of the Anticorporatists 19. Corporate America Loses World Supremacy 20. Laying the Groundwork for the Corporation's Cultural Comeback Part VI. Leadership 21. Managing by Values 22. Creating the Concept of Corporate Culture 23. Inventing the Leadership Development Industry 24. Reagan Aids Corporations by Bashing Government Part VII. Entrepreneurship 25. Supply-Siders versus the Big Corporation 26. Reengineering the Corporation 27. George W. Bush, Enron, and the Great Recession 28. Can the Corporate American Dream Be Saved? Notes Index