What is a corporation? What is it for? Perhaps more importantly, who is it for? What is its basis for existing? Is profit its sole proper concern, or should “social” responsibilities — whether those be equal rights or climate change — likewise be part of its remit? Who gets to set its remit: the professional managers who run the company, or the shareholders? Should shareholders have a say in the business’ priorities at all, and at what level can they and can they not push a company to change course? How does the historical fact of the existence of corporations by government license square — or not — with libertarian and contractualist framings of the nature of a corporation and the relationship between markets, firms, and the state?

I had no idea until this week the degree to which basically every one of these questions stretches back in various forms to the beginning of the 20th century — but they do, and Kyle Edward Williams’ Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation lays out that history clearly and cogently. More: while you can certainly see some of Williams’ own views come through here and there in the way he frames this story, I think he also presents the history fairly on the whole. It is a story of those questions being debated by businessmen (and, eventually businesswomen: but in this book mostly businessmen because of the time period it covers), judges, Presidents of the United States of America, legislators, agitators, capitalists, church people, civil rights activists, lawyers, think tank founders, and more. It is the story of today’s discontent with the scope and influence of corporations painted across the whole of the 20th century: a reminder that for all the breathlessness of the reporting about what is happening right now, very little of what is happening right now is genuinely novel. Knowing history better does a great deal of good for one’s soul: truly there is nothing new under the sun.

The book manages a delightfully fine balance of erudition and clarity: the prose made for easy listening in audiobook form, and Williams is not afraid to reference Matt Levine to humorous effect in the conclusion;¹ but it was also clear at every point that the homework had been done.

If I have a single complaint, it is that the story starts in media res, at the end of the age of the “robber barons” of the steel and railroad age and the populists at the start of the 1900s, and runs rather too quickly through the 1990’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s. The book might be better subtitled “The Battle for the Soul of the Corporation in the 20th Century”. My curiosity has been piqued; I may have to go bother Kyle about what I should read for those earlier years he alludes to and whose story is so critical to the tale he does tell here.

This is a great read if you have any interest in the nature and history of the modern corporation. Given that the 20th century saw a huge shift in just how much power, money, and influence corporations have in the world, if you are the kind of person who reads this blog, there is a good chance that means you! Pick up the book (affiliate link) and give it a read!