The Conspiracy of Capital: Law, Violence, and American Popular Radicalism in the Age of Monopoly
Between the 1880s and 1920s, a broad coalition of American dissidents, which included rabble-rousing cartoonists, civil liberties lawyers, socialist detectives, union organizers, and revolutionary martyrs, forged a culture of popular radicalism that directly challenged an emergent corporate capitalism. Monopoly capitalists and their allies in government responded by expanding conspiracy laws and promoting conspiracy theories in an effort to destroy this anti-capitalist movement. The result was an escalating class conflict in which each side came to view the other as a criminal conspiracy.

In this detailed cultural history, Michael Mark Cohen argues that a legal, ideological, and representational politics of conspiracy contributed to the formation of a genuinely revolutionary mass culture in the United States, starting with the 1886 Haymarket bombing. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, The Conspiracy of Capital offers a new history of American radicalism and the alliance between the modern business corporation and national security state through a comprehensive reassessment of the role of conspiracy laws and conspiracy theories in American social movements.
1129836860
The Conspiracy of Capital: Law, Violence, and American Popular Radicalism in the Age of Monopoly
Between the 1880s and 1920s, a broad coalition of American dissidents, which included rabble-rousing cartoonists, civil liberties lawyers, socialist detectives, union organizers, and revolutionary martyrs, forged a culture of popular radicalism that directly challenged an emergent corporate capitalism. Monopoly capitalists and their allies in government responded by expanding conspiracy laws and promoting conspiracy theories in an effort to destroy this anti-capitalist movement. The result was an escalating class conflict in which each side came to view the other as a criminal conspiracy.

In this detailed cultural history, Michael Mark Cohen argues that a legal, ideological, and representational politics of conspiracy contributed to the formation of a genuinely revolutionary mass culture in the United States, starting with the 1886 Haymarket bombing. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, The Conspiracy of Capital offers a new history of American radicalism and the alliance between the modern business corporation and national security state through a comprehensive reassessment of the role of conspiracy laws and conspiracy theories in American social movements.
32.95 In Stock
The Conspiracy of Capital: Law, Violence, and American Popular Radicalism in the Age of Monopoly

The Conspiracy of Capital: Law, Violence, and American Popular Radicalism in the Age of Monopoly

by Michael Mark Cohen
The Conspiracy of Capital: Law, Violence, and American Popular Radicalism in the Age of Monopoly

The Conspiracy of Capital: Law, Violence, and American Popular Radicalism in the Age of Monopoly

by Michael Mark Cohen

Paperback(First Edition)

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Overview

Between the 1880s and 1920s, a broad coalition of American dissidents, which included rabble-rousing cartoonists, civil liberties lawyers, socialist detectives, union organizers, and revolutionary martyrs, forged a culture of popular radicalism that directly challenged an emergent corporate capitalism. Monopoly capitalists and their allies in government responded by expanding conspiracy laws and promoting conspiracy theories in an effort to destroy this anti-capitalist movement. The result was an escalating class conflict in which each side came to view the other as a criminal conspiracy.

In this detailed cultural history, Michael Mark Cohen argues that a legal, ideological, and representational politics of conspiracy contributed to the formation of a genuinely revolutionary mass culture in the United States, starting with the 1886 Haymarket bombing. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, The Conspiracy of Capital offers a new history of American radicalism and the alliance between the modern business corporation and national security state through a comprehensive reassessment of the role of conspiracy laws and conspiracy theories in American social movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781625344014
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date: 06/07/2019
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 356
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

MICHAEL MARK COHEN is associate teaching professor in American studies and African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments Co-conspirators xi

Introduction "The Conspiracy of Capital" The Dialectics of Conspiracy in the Age of Monopoly 1

Chapter 1 "This Worn-Out Piece of Tyranny" Clarence Darrow, the Haymarket Generation, and the Secret History of Conspiracy Law 32

Chapter 2 "Sensational Writing and a Fight" Dangerous Knowledge, Socialist Detectives, and the Rise and Fall of the Appeal to Reason 80

Chapter 3 "The Marks of Capital" The Wobblies versus the Invisible Government 142

Chapter 4 "The Ku Klux Government" Law and Terror in the Red Scare 189

Conclusion "Will Fascism Come to America?" Civil Liberties, Antifascism, and the Legacy of the Haymarket Generation 249

Notes 273

Index 317

What People are Saying About This

Shelley Streeby

Cohen draws upon a strong archival base and an impressively wide range of texts to provide an illuminating analysis of how the politics of conspiracy was central to this era's culture of popular radicalism.

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