The Big Myth, How American Business Taught Us to Love the Free Market

Eric Conway is the co-author along with Harvard's Naomi Arreskis of a new book, The Big Myth. It traces the overwhelmingly successful efforts by American businessmen beginning in the late 19th century to instill in Americans the belief that the free market is always the best and most moral solution to every problem. What started this false history? We begin the story with the effort of the National Association of Manufacturers to prevent the passage of child labor laws so that they could continue to exploit the cheapest, most vulnerable labor available to them.