One Market Under God
{{Short description|2000 book by Thomas Frank}}{{Infobox book
| image = OneMarketUnderGod.jpg
| author = Thomas Frank
| pub_date = 2000
| caption = First edition cover
| language = English
| genre = Non-fiction
}}
{{italic title}}
One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy is a 2000 book by historian and author Thomas Frank.{{cite book |last=Frank |first=Thomas |date=2000 |title=One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy |url=https://archive.org/details/onemarketunderg000fran |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=0-385-49503-X |url-access=registration }} It was published by Anchor Books.
The book traces the development of what Frank decries as market populism: "the idea that markets are a far more democratic form of organization than democratically elected governments." He also discusses many facets of the New Economy, "culture studs," and internet brokerages.
An excerpt of the book was the cover story of the October 12, 2000 issue of The Nation.{{cite web|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/rise-market-populism/|title=The Rise of Market Populism|last=Frank|first=Thomas|publisher=The Nation|date=October 30, 2000|access-date=November 12, 2018}}
Summary
=Television commercials=
One topic that Frank devotes considerable page space to is television commercials, especially those for brokerages and mutual funds. He cites many examples of corporations being compared to rock stars, the Civil Rights Movement and the French Revolution and God.
=Beardstown Ladies=
Frank discusses the Beardstown Ladies, an informal investment group comprising elderly women from Beardstown, Illinois. He covers their usage by the media to promote the idea (mostly fallacious, in Frank's estimation) that Average Joe Americans were just as good as, if not better than, professionals at picking stocks.
Reception
It was reviewed in The American Prospect on December 18, 2000,{{cite web|url=https://prospect.org/features/divine-commerce/|title=Divine Commerce|last=King|first=Michael|date=December 19, 2001|quote=Frank is to be commended for his extraordinary endurance in simply collecting and cataloging the range of atavistic poppycock that sustains most conventional commentary on markets}} in The New York Times on December 21, 2000 {{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D13FC345D0C728EDDAB0994D8404482|title=The Little Guy Is on His Mind; An Author Savagely Indicts Notions of a New Economy|last=Schwartz|first=John|work=New York Times|date=December 21, 2001|quote=Mr. Frank is, in his way, trying to restore a languishing tradition — social criticism — and bring it to a popular audience, reaching back to the time of Edmund Wilson and the preternaturally cranky H. L. Mencken.}}
References
External links
- [http://www.tcfrank.com/books/one-market-under-god/ The book at Thomas Frank's website]
- [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20001030/frank Excerpt that appeared in The Nation]
- [https://prospect.org/features/divine-commerce/ Review in The American Prospect]
- [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D13FC345D0C728EDDAB0994D8404482 Review in The New York Times]