I discuss content from Chapters 12 and 13 of Eugene McCarraher’s The Enchantments of Mammon, especially his treatment of the American populist and socialist movements. McCarraher shows that underneath their anti-capitalist rhetoric lies a deep agreement with US corporate capitalism. The corporate system was seen by both as a model of cooperation, organization and efficiency which they simply wanted to harness more productively for people as a whole. The populists did not dispute capitalism so much as they attempted to reform it. The socialists (somewhat apropos to my conversation with Chris Cutrone recently) thought the corporate system and scientific management would work better with the profit motive out of the way. Both, then, in their own way, according to McCarraher, were still enchanted with Mammon.

Here’s a link to McCarraher’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Enchantments-Mammon-Capitalism-Religion-Modernity/dp/0674984617/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=enchantments+of+mammon&qid=1601065133&sr=8-1

For more from me: http://www.lauriemjohnson.com