Freedom to Harm

How much economic freedom is a good thing? This comprehensive look at America's succession of "laissez-faire revivals" shows how anti-regulatory business crusades harm public safety and economic performance with a look at the Gilded Age, from the late 1800s to the early 1900s; the Laissez-Faire Revival of the mid-1960s to mid-1970s; and the tenure of the George W. Bush administration. During these periods, the government often passed protective legislation in response to particular crises instead of criminalizing hazardous practices. During the Bush administration, government intervention was at its lowest since the New Deal years and Thomas O. McGarity argues that we're now in the middle of a fourth assault on the government's role as the protector of its citizens.