**An "eloquent" (Economist) history of how corporate innovation has
shaped society, from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley **
Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism
has only grown more intense in recent years. Meanwhile, corporations
continue to amass wealth and power at a dizzying rate,
recklessly pursuing profit while leaving society to sort out the
costs.
In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of
the corporation didn't have to come to this. Throughout history, he
finds, corporations have been purpose-built to benefit the societies
that surrounded them. Corporations enabled everything from the
construction of ancient Rome's roads and aqueducts to the artistic
flourishing of the Renaissance to the rise of the middle class in the
twentieth century. By recapturing this original spirit of civic virtue,
Magnuson argues, corporations can help craft a society in which all of
us--not just shareholders--benefit from the profits of enterprise.