| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Wyatt Wells. Antitrust and the Formation of the Postwar World. (Columbia Studies in Contemporary American History.) New York: Columbia University Press. 2002. Pp. x, 276. $32.50.

Antitrust, a distinctive expression of American values, is often likened to a national religion. In this book, Wyatt Wells explores the ways in which this religion was exported during the immediate postwar period. The first several chapters provide an engaging discussion of competing theoretical interpretations of cartels, the emergence of cartels in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the tension between the ideals of antitrust and the realities of corporate organization, and the evolution of antitrust during the Progressive era and the New Deal. Despite the rhetorical support for antitrust, it was approached with ambivalence given the contributions that large enterprises made to economic growth and rising consumption opportunities. International cartels were of limited concern given the insulation of the United States to international markets. This status of antitrust was particularly unresolved in the 1930s, as conflicts raged among factions in the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt's recovery initiatives rarely sent a consistent message. In this chaotic context, Wells skillfully recounts how Thurman Arnold transformed the Antitrust Division and embarked on a vigorous crusade against a variety of business practices, thereby extending the reach of antitrust. . . .

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