Reviews
"Oreskes’ and Conway’s new book ... will no doubt give all of us something to think about as right-wing disinfo outlets continue to push free market propaganda." —Daily Kos
“This is a provocative follow-up to “Merchants of Doubt,” their 2010 book about how business-funded scientists spread misinformation about issues such as climate change and the hazards of tobacco … Conservative economic thought has had a major influence on American life and culture. Readers clamoring for an understanding of its intellectual origins would benefit from picking up The Big Myth.” —FTC Watch
“Historians of science Oreskes and Conway (Merchants of Doubt) return with a persuasive examination of how corporate advocates, libertarian academics, and right-wing culture warriors have collaborated to try to convince the American people that economic and political freedom are indivisible, and that regulation leads inexorably to tyranny ... Polemical yet scrupulously researched, this wake-up call rings loud and clear.” —Publishers Weekly
“A thoughtful denunciation of the economic dogma that the market knows best … A timely, well-argued contribution to the literature of economic inequality and regulation.” —Kirkus
“The Big Myth offers a valuable perspective on our current disputes about both the democratic and the capitalist sides of democratic capitalism … If today’s executives want to address the tensions about their companies’ role in our societies, The Big Myth suggests one starting point: for business to stop pushing the idea that the only role of government is to get out of its way.” —Financial Times
“Outstanding … A pair of historians explain how market fundamentalism leads to science denial … For scientists who are dumbfounded by anti-science attitudes, understanding this history is vital. Only by understanding the forces that cause science denial can anything be done about it. Like Merchants of Doubt before it, The Big Myth offers crucial insight into this phenomenon.” —Holden Thorp, Science
“Two historians strike at the heart of our contemporary crisis in this scorching indictment of free market fundamentalism ... At once radical and radicalizing, The Big Myth paints a damning picture of how capitalism has destroyed democracy—and how we can change, before it’s too late.” —Esquire, The Best Books of Winter 2023
“If you're starting to wonder how exactly our society got to a place of radically supporting corporations while simultaneously slashing more individual governmental support, then this book from historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway is a solid jumping off point.” —Cosmopolitan, The 11 Best New Non-Fiction Books to Add to Your TBR Pile in 2023
“Richly researched … [Oreskes and Conway] succeed in chronicling a concerted effort by American business to shift public opinion in favor of free markets.” —The Economist
“Impressive.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
Praise
“The Big Myth is both a carefully researched work of intellectual history, and an urgently needed political analysis explaining how Americans have become so deeply alienated from their own government. In a compelling narrative, the authors show how a small but zealous cadre of conservative businessmen, many of them selling harmful products, waged and largely won an undeclared ideological war for Americans' hearts and minds. The magical thinking they promoted has profited them handsomely, but cost the rest of the country tragically.”—Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money
“Market fundamentalism has been profoundly damaging to human and economic welfare, in terms of ill health, environmental harms, inequality, and more. How did this belief system become so prominent in ideas and politics, particularly in the USA? This fascinating and important book tells that extraordinary story with care and rigor, setting out the cast of characters, their motivations, and the modus operandi. Please read this book. And be warned.” —Lord Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist of the World Bank
“Admirers of the authors’ Merchants of Doubt will find the same trenchant investigative brilliance here, deployed on an even wider canvas. They show how wealthy industrialists praising free enterprise shamelessly put vast sums of money into manipulating the free market of ideas. The target: well over a century’s worth of progressive movements from child labor regulation to the New Deal to the fight for renewable energy.” —Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
“The Big Myth is a detailed, carefully researched study of how the ideology of market fundamentalism was sold to the American public. An invaluable exposé of how a certain kind of magical thinking was turned into accepted wisdom.” —Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
“In this major work, Oreskes and Conway expose how American democracy was deformed by decades of ‘free market’ ideology. They reveal how big business interests attacked the very guardrails that make markets safe and fair and flogged the self-serving notion that popular democracy is dangerous to ‘freedom.’ Worst of all, American business successfully persuaded many of us that we should trust corporations more than our own government.” —Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), co-author of The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court
“A sweeping, eye-opening account of how the myth of the free market seeped into American political culture. Looking back at the history of the organizations and individuals who attempted to erase the reality of our mixed public-private system, The Big Myth busts the myth of market fundamentalism that has weakened our ability to tackle major policy challenges.” —Julian Zelizer, CNN contributor, and author of Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of a New Republican Party
“Oreskes and Conway have written a wonderful book. It is St. George slaying the dragon. The Big Myth can free American minds from a dangerous enthrallment.”—James Gustave Speth, former dean, Yale School of the Environment, and author of America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy