"A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems America's security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when they seemed like necessities to combat terrorism--but now they're a matter of course. Multinational companies...

Most Favored Nation discusses the movement for tariff revision under Republican administrations in the critical years preceding World War I. Paul Wolman shows how and why some Republicans turned away from their party's -- and the nation's -- traditional tariff reduction and revision. Wolman describes how the revisionists of this period developed a comprehensive program that sought to replace the "logrolling" system of protectionist interest trading...

"Trade allows us to sell what we produce at home and purchase what we don't. It lowers prices and gives us greater variety and innovation. Yet understanding our place in the global trade network is rarely so simple, and today's workers are wary of being taken advantage of. Trade has become an easy excuse for struggling economies, a scapegoat for our failures to adapt to a changing world, and--for many Americans on both the right and the left--nothing...

This monumental work of cultural history was nominated for a National Book Award. It chronicles America's transformation, beginning in 1880, into a nation of consumers, devoted to a cult of comfort, bodily well-being, and endless acquisition.