Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam

by Vivek Ramaswamy

Overview

In this New York Times bestseller, a young and successful entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate makes the case that politics has no place in business, and sets out a new vision for the future of American capitalism.

There’s a new invisible force at work in our economic and cultural lives. It affects every advertisement we see and every product we buy, from our morning coffee to a new pair of shoes.  “Stakeholder capitalism” makes rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally friendly world, but in reality this ideology championed by America’s business and political leaders robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.
 
Vivek Ramaswamy is a traitor to his class. He’s founded multibillion-dollar enterprises, led a biotech company as CEO, he became a hedge fund partner in his 20s, trained as a scientist at Harvard and a lawyer at Yale, and grew up the child of immigrants in a small town in Ohio. Now he takes us behind the scenes into corporate boardrooms and five-star conferences, into Ivy League classrooms and secretive nonprofits, to reveal the defining scam of our century.
 
The modern woke-industrial complex divides us as a people. By mixing morality with consumerism, America’s elites prey on our innermost insecurities about who we really are. They sell us cheap social causes and skin-deep identities to satisfy our hunger for a cause and our search for meaning, at a moment when we as Americans lack both.
 
This book not only rips back the curtain on the new corporatist agenda, it offers a better way forward. America’s elites may want to sort us into demographic boxes, but we don’t have to stay there. Woke, Inc. begins as a critique of stakeholder capitalism and ends with an exploration of what it means to be an American today—a journey that begins with cynicism and ends with hope.   

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781546090793
Publisher:	Center Street
Publication date:	08/15/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	51,332
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Vivek Ramaswamy is a New York Times bestselling author and entrepreneur who has founded multiple successful enterprises. A first-generation American, he is the founder and Executive Chairman of Roivant Sciences, a new type of biopharmaceutical company focused on the application of technology to drug development.  He founded Roivant in 2014 and led the largest biotech IPOs of 2015 and 2016, eventually culminating in successful clinical trials in multiple disease areas that led to FDA-approved products. 

Mr. Ramaswamy was born and raised in southwest Ohio. He graduated summa cum laude in biology from Harvard in 2007 and began his career as a biotech investor at a prominent hedge fund. Mr. Ramaswamy continued to work as an investor while earning his law degree at Yale, where he was a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

Mr. Ramaswamy was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2015 for his work in drug development. In 2020 he emerged as a prominent national commentator on stakeholder capitalism, free speech, and woke culture. He has authored numerous articles and op-eds, which have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Newsweek, and Harvard Business Review.  

Mr. Ramaswamy serves on the board of directors of the Philanthropy Roundtable and the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Woke-Industrial Complex 1

Chapter 1 The Goldman Rule 11

Chapter 2 How I Became a Capitalist 40

Chapter 3 What's the Purpose of a Corporation? 56

Chapter 4 The Rise of the Managerial Class 82

Chapter 5 The ESG Bubble 106

Chapter 6 An Arranged Marriage 126

Chapter 7 Henchmen of the Woke-Industrial Complex 141

Chapter 8 When Dictators Become Stakeholders 157

Chapter 9 The Silicon Leviathan 182

Chapter 10 Wokeness Is Like a Religion 215

Chapter 11 Actually, Wokeness Is Literally a Religion 240

Chapter 12 Critical Diversity Theory 261

Chapter 13 Woke Consumerism and the Big Sort 274

Chapter 14 The Bastardization of Service 296

Chapter 15 Who Are We? 319

Notes 329

Acknowledgments 355

About the Author 357

Editorial Reviews

A provocative critique, wrapped in a gripping personal story that pulls you in from page one. Vivek Ramaswamy is breakthrough brilliant and arrestingly original. Woke, Inc. is essential reading for anyone who cares about America’s democracy, economy, and future.”—Amy Chua, Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations

“Vivek Ramaswamy provides the single most informative and insightful analysis yet of woke ideology…Woke, Inc. is indispensable for understanding how America's newest and most consequential cultural dogma is fundamentally transforming virtually every sector of our lives.”—Glenn Greenwald, journalist, constitutional lawyer, and author of four New York Times bestselling books

In Woke, Inc., Vivek speaks the truth without fear: woke identity politics is dividing and weakening America at every level. He urges us to lift up all Americans, rather than to pit ourselves against each other. His combination of honesty, intellect, and foresight are exactly what we need to overcome our challenges in the years ahead. —Ambassador Nikki Haley

“A provocative, compelling, and highly readable look at the uneasy relationship between business and politics. I may not agree with all of Vivek’s answers, but every thinking American needs to come to grips with the questions he poses.”—N. Gregory Mankiw, professor, Department of Economics at Harvard University

"In a world where many fear to say what they think, Vivek courageously attacks the hypocrisy of corporations and their managements...his speaking truth to power will elevate this important discussion and advance our understanding of the heretofore not-to-be-discussed risks of stakeholder capitalism. I strongly recommend you give this book a careful read."—Bill Ackman, Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management

“Many CEOs bend the knee to the woke because they benefit from it, but Vivek Ramaswamy shows us what true courage requires. Scathing yet inspiring, Woke, Inc. is an important book for our time.”—Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution and Founder, AHA Foundation

"In this engaging, brilliant book, Vivek Ramaswamy hits the nail on the head: companies go woke because they get richer from division rather than unity. This book is an essential weapon in the battle to reclaim America's soul."—JD Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy and venture capitalist

“Vivek Ramaswamy…offers a path back toward a more free and prosperous society.”—Arthur C. Brooks, professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and New York Times bestselling author

From the Publisher