Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan

<p>A narrative history of the influential businessmen who fought to roll back the New Deal.</p><p>Starting in the mid-1930s, a handful of prominent American businessmen forged alliances with the aim of rescuing America--and their profit margins--from socialism and the &quot;nanny state.&quot; Long before the &quot;culture wars&quot; usually associated with the rise of conservative politics, these driven individuals funded think tanks, fought labor unions, and formed organizations to market their views. These nearly unknown, larger-than-life, and sometimes eccentric personalities--such as GE's zealous, silver-tongued Lemuel Ricketts Boulware and the self-described &quot;revolutionary&quot; Jasper Crane of DuPont--make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history.</p><p>The winner of a prestigious academic award for her original research on this book, Kim Phillips-Fein is already being heralded as an important new young American historian. Her meticulous research and narrative gifts reveal the dramatic story of a pragmatic, step-by-step, check-by-check campaign to promote an ideological revolution--one that ultimately helped propel conservative ideas to electoral triumph.</p> 16 Photographs