Wal-Mart Wars: Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century

(New York University Press) This book examines the conflict surrounding Mal-Mart, America’s largest retailer and the target of class-action lawsuits and public outcry over labor practices. Massengill argues that these economic debates represent a conflict over deeper symbolic ideas about freedom, community, family, and citizenship. Do corporate entities really operate according to value-free conceptions of the marketplace, or do consumers and advocacy groups bring standards of moral worth into the picture? Massengill is a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program.