Description
"Americans have long been skeptical of large corporations, and polls show that skepticism growing ever more intense year over year. Meanwhile, corporations--and the titans who lead them--continue to amass wealth and power, recklessly pursuing profit for a tiny percentage of shareholders and spending significant sums lobbying political figures to stave off regulation. Corporate law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of the corporation didn't have to come to this. Indeed, for most of history, corporations have not primarily been amoral entities created solely for the relentless pursuit of profit, but rather public institutions designated to promote the societies or governments that granted them charter. In For Profit, Magnuson shows us how the corporation--a structure that, in its most basic sense, involves a group of people coming together to fund an endeavor that could not be achieved alone--has evolved since its beginnings in the ancient world. From the creation of the first corporation in Ancient Rome to the East India company's invention of the joint stock company to the rise of venture capital in the internet age, Magnuson argues, corporations have helped us thrive, creating the conditions for the artistic flourishing of the Renaissance and the rise of the middle class in the 20th century. As corporations have evolved over time, however, so too have the ways in which unscrupulous managers have figured out how to "game the system," extracting wealth without providing value in return. What happens in this next chapter of the global economy, Magnuson concludes, depends on whether we can return to the original public-minded spirit of the corporation, or whether we have sunk irrevocably into the swamp of high profit at all costs. Epic in scope and filled with compelling stories, For Profit illuminates the essential roles corporations have played, both for good and evil, in the making of the modern world"--
