Manheim, Jarol B. The Death of a Thousand Cuts: Corporate Campaigns and the
Attack on the Corporation. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.
362 pages.
Jarol Manheim, a professor at George Washington University, has
produced a book that is unique, comprehensive, and utterly obscure. This is
a history of the organized anti-corporate campaign that began with New Left
activists in the 1960s, and today is increasingly sponsored by labor unions.
It's not a general, continuous movement (although it could become one soon),
but rather a series of nearly 200 campaigns against specific corporations
over specific issues during the last 30 years. The worst nightmare of
corporate public relations departments, the typical anti-corporate campaign
throws it back in their faces, using some of the same mass-media techniques
(the author calls it "strategic political communication"). A well-done
campaign can have a devastating effect on a company's stock price.
Manheim tries to be academically objective, but he also seems to sense
that most of his readers will be professional PR hacks who are paid to know
the enemy. The reader gets an occasional innuendo that hints at his distaste
for the rabble (maybe we're just sensitive). But the book is so thoroughly
researched, with so many concrete examples and so many names, that all is
forgiven. This is first time we've seen the terms "power structure analysis"
and "power structure research" in print in 25 years. It's been a long wait.
ISBN 0-8058-3831-7
Extract the names from this source
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