Triumph of the Market
Edward S. Herman

The unifying theme of the essays in this volume is the increasing national and global power and reach of the market and its growing impact on all aspects of human life. The phrase "the market" denotes both the corporate institutions that are the leading and dominant factors in production, trade, and finance, and the arrangements, mechanisms, and practices that permit and facilitate the buying and selling of goods and money. Thus, the "triumph of the market" refers to the sharp increase in power, and hegemonic position, of the dominant market participants and to the now almost universal acceptance of market exchanges and private ownership as the exclusive way of organizing economic life.

"'The rule of the market is a serious threat to human welfare.' So says Edward S. Herman whose enlightening and entertaining essays peel away the facade of neutrality from the 'politicized discipline' of economics. Triumph of the Market demystifies the many ways that giant global corporations have worked to replace democratic and community values with market exchange. It is an indispensable guide for activists interested in countering the current economic, political, and social order." - Dr. Elaine Bernard, Harvard University Trade Union Program

"If you think you know how bad things are, here's Ed Herman's latest work to prove that it's even worse than you imagined. Yes, it's hard times, but with Ed on our side to chronicle the global situation with his wit, insight, and his surprising measure of hope, how can we lose?" - DeeDee Halleck, Paper Tiger Television

"Edward Herman tells a non-fiction horror story, where what's good for private profit is hailed as good for the public. Where media conglomerates hail freedom of expression as the right of dissenters to be irrelevant and marginal on Hyde Park Soapboxes. Where very real holocausts that profited U.S. elites or their allies are dismissed as "politically correct" inventions. Herman paints a bleak picture, but his humanism and hope come through." - Jeff Cohen, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

"Triumph of the Market is a disturbingly blunt warning about the clear and present dangers to democracy, economic rationality, national sovereignty, global economic stability and progress, and international peace. Not since C.L.R. James has a progressive writer managed to be authoritative and 'comfortable' with national issues of culture, race, and pseudo-science, economics and politics, as with the international machinations of finance capital and the new imperial order." - Samori Marksmann, Director of Programming WBAI-FM, Pacifica Radio

"Edward Herman's Triumph of the Market provides the most penetrating and brilliant analysis of the linkages between U.S. and global economics, politics and media ever published in one volume. Drawing from Herman's decades of rich experience as an economist, media scholar, and dedicated radical democrat, Triumph of the Market presents a devastating critique of global capitalism and its anti-democratic and bankrupt politics, ideology and media. Anyone concerned with the future of democracy should consider this mandatory reading." - Robert W. McChesney, author, Department of Journalism, University of Wisconsin

Edward S. Herman was an American economist, media scholar and social critic. He held an appointment as Professor Emeritus of finance at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania and taught at Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

1995; 286 pages

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