The Big Myth

How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway

Narrated by: Liza Seneca

Bloomsbury presents The Big Myth by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, read by Liza Seneca.

“An immense scholarly feat.”—New Yorker * “[A] scorching indictment of free market fundamentalism . . . and how we can change, before it’s too late.”—Esquire

The bestselling authors of Merchants of Doubt offer a profound, startling history of one of America’s most tenacious—and destructive—false ideas: the myth of the "free market."

In their landmark book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the “magic of the marketplace.”

In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with “big government” and up with unfettered markets. With trenchant archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names; recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books; and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine to millions and launched Ronald Reagan’s political career.

By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.©2023 Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The story the world needs.

This book lays out the history of pseudo-libertarianism, how it’s affected our world, and lays out potential paths forward.

A critical idea that needs more attention.

Foundational insight for our current and largest challenges

The information and analysis presented in this detailed and profound audiobook holds the key to so many of our problems. By providing thorough historical exposition and perspective we learn in detail how the argument (now gospel for most) that “…government IS the problem” was a manufactured myth - manufactured for specific destructive and corporate aims. I remember when Reagan came into office, I was conducting social science research evaluating the efficacy of a host of governmental programs including the National Health Service Corps among many others. The NHSC was extraordinarily successful and provided essential health services to scores of communities. The new administration forbade us from disseminating or publishing the (government-funded) results because they so clearly contradicted the fallacy the new administration was working diligently (& quickly, successfully) to inculcate in our political culture.

This book not only describes the process of creating this popular myth throughout the 20th century, but it’s analysis puts it in the larger historical, political and cultural contexts. We should all be armed with this understanding so we can read the falsities (like the “necessity” of de-regulation) currently being propagated to prevent us from addressing the most consequential ills of our time: climate change, economic inequality, declining public and environmental health, etc. and thereby more effectively articulate and work for a future.

Super Informative!

So informative that I both listened to audiobook as well as bought a hard bound copy to highlight key passages.

Well done!

Just Excellent

A very well researched and argued analysis on this extremely important issue. The Big Myth remains alive and well because so few people understand how it came to take us over. This book explains how and why.

I told you once, I will tell you twice…

The premise is 100% accurate as far as powerful corporate owners also have powerful influence in government, schools, and information dissemination at large. While I want to critique how long and redundant the premise is, I can’t quite fault the book for continuously proving it’s point through modern history. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and basically offer solutions that may have been successfully implemented in other social settings, I missed it if it was a subtle suggestion or it was not suggested at all. I would recommend this book to others to read it, with the caution of its repetitiveness, but that you will be a able to create a more balance discussion between free markets and the need for more market regulations with plenty of examples to draw from. I guess that’s a good thing.