Includes bibliographical references and index.

The corporate American dream at its height and in its origins -- The corporate American dream -- Corporate and national character -- From public purpose to private profit -- Corporations as enemies of the free market -- Corporate failure and government fix -- Corporate crashes -- Managers versus markets -- Corporations blow their chance to end the depression -- Roosevelt's confused anti-corporatism -- The corporation strikes back -- The right to manage -- Corporations recover their moral authority -- Killing the unions softly -- Creating Reagan and his voters -- What manner of man(ager)? -- Masking the arrogance of power -- Responsibility versus profit at general motors -- Critics of managerial character -- JFK's pyrrhic victory over U.S. steel -- The corporation in the wilderness again -- McNamara and the staffers -- The false confidence of the anti-corporatists -- Corporate America loses world supremacy -- Laying the groundwork for the corporation's cultural comeback -- Leadership -- Managing by values -- Creating the concept of corporate culture -- Inventing the leadership development industry -- Reagan aids corporations by bashing government -- Entrepreneurship -- Supply siders versus the big corporation -- Reengineering the corporation -- George W. Bush, Enron, and the great recession -- Can the corporate American dream be saved?.