The second part of Hawley’s book lays out our current problem. Hawley points to Big Tech as the culmination of this process. Ironically, corporations would leverage the fulfillment of individual desire to erode the common man’s right to self-government. His stated goal is to protect the ability of the working class to speak their minds and govern themselves.Ĭorporate liberalism, on the other hand, sold the public a new way of life based on personal choice. In this view, the international corporation emerges as the inevitable heir to earthly power.Ĭountering this arrogant elitism, Hawley advocates the original republican philosophy. Just as nature moves from simplicity to complexity, human society naturally progresses toward higher levels of cooperation. First as a university professor, then as president, Wilson espoused a grand evolutionary vision of American society. He presents Woodrow Wilson as the face of corporate liberalism. He celebrates Roosevelt’s heroic efforts to loosen the robber barons’ stranglehold on America, even if that struggle failed to halt the wheels of “progress.” Hawley holds up Teddy Roosevelt as a defender of original republican values. The former is credited with defending the rights and dignity of the common men and women whose voices, he argues, the latter is crushing. His story tracks two divergent philosophies: constitutional republicanism and corporate liberalism. Hawley opens with the robber barons who consolidated railroad, steel, and oil monopolies at the turn of the 20th century.
The final section lays out the senator’s ambitious plan for antitrust legislation.
I never thought I’d read a Republican author who’s grasped the work of tech-futurist Jaron Lanier, but Hawley’s full of surprises.
In the second, he details the 21st century’s techno-capitalist takeover. In the first, Hawley sketches a brief history of Gilded Age monopolies. The Tyranny of Big Tech unfolds in three parts.