Invisible Hands

Beginning in the mid-1930s, a handful of prominent American businessmen forged alliances with the aim of rescuing America - and their profit margins - from socialism and the 'nanny state'. Long before the 'culture wars', these driven individuals funded think tanks, fought unions and formed organisations to market their views. These nearly unknown, larger-than-life and sometimes eccentric personalities make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history. Kim Phillips-Fein is being heralded as an important new young American historian. Her meticulous research and narrative gifts reveal the dramatic story of a pragmatic, step-by-step, campaign to promote an ideological revolution - one that helped propel conservative ideas to electoral triumph