Gangs of America : the rise of corporate power and the disabling of democracy / Ted Nace.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [262]-266) and index.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. How did corporations get so much power? : in which the author reads a poll, feels provoked and befuddled, and organizes his investigation -- 2. From street fights to empire : the British roots of the American corporation (1267-1773) -- 3. The ultimate reality show : the brutal history of the Virginia Company (1607-1624) -- 4. Why the colonists feared corporations : in which the citizens of Boston demonstrate the use of the hatchet as an anti-monopoly device (1770-1773) -- 5. ... and what they did about it : how the framers of the American system restrained corporate power (1787-1850) -- 6. The genius : the man who reinvented the corporation (1850-1880) -- 7. Superpowers : the corporation acquires nine powerful attributes (1860-1900) -- 8. The judge : Stephen Field and the politics of personhood (1868-1885) -- 9. The court reporter : who really decided the Supreme Court's most important corporate case? (1886) -- 10. The lavender-vested turkey gobbler : how a "majestic, super-eminent" lawyer deceived the Supreme Court (1883) -- 11. Survival of the fittest : "people power" versus a social Darwinist agenda (1886-1937) -- 12. The revolt of the bosses : the new mobilization of corporate political power (1971-2002) -- 13. Speech = money : using the First Amendment to block campaign finance reform -- 14. Judicial yoga : the tangled logic of corporate rights -- 15. Crime wave : the roots of the scandals of 2002 -- 16. Global rule : how international trade agreements are creating new corporate rights -- 17. Fighting back : a movement emerges to challenge corporate hegemony -- 18. Intelligent, amoral, evolving : the hazards of persistent dynamic entities -- appendix A. Supreme Court decisions -- appendix B. The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment -- Notes -- References -- Index -- About the author.