‘Market rules should benefit the majority of the citizenry’: historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway

In their new book, The Big Myth, the authors document the rise of market fundamentalism' and Americans' relationship with government regulations

For the last decade, historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway have been digging into the history of the idea that freedom only thrives if businesses are left unbothered by governments. It's a philosophy that has touched every corner of American life, they argue, even though it has long been proven deeply flawed.

In their new book - The Big Myth - How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market - Oreskes and Conway document the rise of what's more politely called market fundamentalism" over the last century, from corporate propaganda and fringe academic theory to mainstream ideology.