This masterly work combines narrative nonfiction and critical theory to show how massively yet surprisingly subtly marketing has penetrated our private sphere: a “servant power” that, hand in hand with that of management, makes “consumer royalty” of us all and enterprise the cardinal institution of our time.
Drawing on countless edifying histories (marketing’s contribution to the début and boom of the counterculture, the use of schools to target children, self-marketing, etc.), this book sets out to offer no less than an alternative political theory of markets and enterprise, far more empirical and realistic than those of economists, sociologists, and political scientists. It lays the foundation for a general theory of enterprise and its influence on society.
Thibault Le Texier is an associate researcher at the European Center for Sociology and Political Science (CESSP). Among his books are Maniement des hommes. Essai sur la rationalité managériale (Manipulating People: An Essay on Managerial Reasoning, 2016), and Histoire d’un mensonge. Enquête sur l’expérience de Stanford (History of a Lie: An Investigation of the Stanford Experiment, 2018), both from La Découverte.