Praise for Freedom From the Market:
“The Roosevelt Institute’s Konczal is one of the warriors in this fight, arguing fiercely for the need to set much narrower limits on what is left to markets than has been the case in recent decades. A powerful polemic.”
— Martin Wolf, Financial Times
“By identifying an alternative grammar, one that is grounded in the American past, Freedom from the Market provides a way out of the political cul-de-sac created by the failure of the market to deliver on its promises of ‘freedom.’”
— Molly Michelmore, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
“Freedom from the Market is an impressive book, easily one of the best I’ve read in the past several years. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
— Matt Mazewski, Commonweal
“terrific book.”
— Jamelle Bouie, New York Times
“Markets will set us free—except when they won’t, don’t, can’t. In this deeply researched yet eminently readable book, Mike Konczal tells the powerful forgotten story of how American democracy once tamed markets to advance our freedom, and shows us how it could do so once again.”
— Jacob Hacker, Yale University.
“Freedom from the Market has the potential to be a very important book, focusing attention on the contested, messy but crucially important intersection between social movements and the state. It provides a set of ideas that people on both sides of that divide can learn from, and a lively alternative foundation to the deracinated technocratic notions of politics, in which good policy would somehow, magically, be politically self supporting, that has prevailed up until quite recently. Strongly recommended.”
— Henry Farrell, Crooked Timber
Reviews
Matt Mazewski at Commonweal.
Adrian Rutt at Liberal Currents.
Molly Michelmore at Democracy Journal.
Martin Wolf at the Financial Times.
Binyamin Appelbaum at Foreign Affairs.
Bryce Covert at Foreign Policy.
Justin H. Vassallo at the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Barton Swaim at the Wall Street Journal.
Ryan Cooper at The Week.
Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber.
An author at the Karl Polyani Project.
Stephen Eide at National Review.
Media Appearances
I was on The Majority Report with Sam Seder podcast (YouTube) to discuss the book.
I was on the Left Anchor podcast to discuss the book.
I was on Vox’s The Weeds podcast with Matthew Yglesias to discuss the book.
I was on the Gin and Tacos podcast Mass for Shut-Ins with Ed Burmila to discuss the book.
I was on the Lawyers, Guns and Money podcast with Erik Loomis to discuss the book.
Excerpts and other Resources
There was an adapted excerpt of the book, covering Medicare and desegregation, at The Nation.
There was an adapted excerpt of the book, covering the eight-hour workday, at Boston Review.
I was interviewed at Dissent Magazine by historian Tim Barker about the book.