Podcast / American Prestige / Jan 27, 2026

The Rise of Shareholder Primacy, With Sean Delehanty

Danny and Derek speak with historian Sean Delehanty about the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late 20th century.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Rise of Shareholder Primacy w/ Sean Delehanty | American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Danny and Derek speak with historian Sean Delehanty about the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late twentieth century. They discuss postwar conglomerates and corporate social responsibility, the crisis of Fordism, the rise of financial economics, and the theory of the firm. They also look at hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, private equity, the collapse of the public corporation, and the bipartisan consolidation of shareholder primacy in the 1990s.

Buy Sean’s book Company Men: The Invention of Shareholder Value and the Splintering of the American Economy.

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Traders work on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in New York.

(Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Danny and Derek speak with historian Sean Delehanty about the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late 20th century. They discuss postwar conglomerates and corporate social responsibility, the crisis of Fordism, the rise of financial economics, and the theory of the firm. They also look at hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, private equity, the collapse of the public corporation, and the bipartisan consolidation of shareholder primacy in the 1990s.

Buy Sean’s book Company Men: The Invention of Shareholder Value and the Splintering of the American Economy.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Cold War Liberal Empire w/ Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes I American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism, its shaping of the American empire, and more from their new co-edited volume. They discuss the meaning of “Cold War liberalism,” the book’s essays, the relationship between liberalism and mass democracy, emergency politics, the continuity between New Deal liberalism and Cold War liberalism, military Keynesianism, US empire, neoconservatism, Joe Biden, and the persistence of Cold War liberal ideas in long after the end of the Cold War itself.

Buy the volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency and use discount code BESSNER26 

Don’t forget to download our Marx Prestige miniseries. Final episode out today!

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Daniel Bessner

Daniel Bessner is an historian of US foreign relations, and cohost of American Prestige, a podcast on international affairs.

Derek Davison

Derek Davison is a writer and analyst specializing in international affairs and US foreign policy. He is the publisher of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter, cohost of the American Prestige podcast, and former editor of LobeLog.

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