{"title":"Books by Rob Larson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781642590319","title":"Bit Tyrants","description":"\u003cp\u003eIf the stories they tell about themselves are to be believed, all of the tech giants—Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon—were built from the ground up through hard work, a few good ideas, and the entrepreneurial daring to seize an opportunity when it presented itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith searing wit and blistering commentary Bit Tyrants provides an urgent corrective to this froth of board room marketing copy that is so often passed off as analysis. For fans of corporate fairy-tales there are no shortage of official histories that celebrate the innovative genius of Steve Jobs, liberal commentators who fall over themselves to laude Bill Gates's selfless philanthropy, or politicians who will tell us to listen to Mark Zuckerberg for advice on how to protect our democracy from foreign influence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this highly unauthorized account of the Big Five's origins, Rob Larson sets the record straight, and in the process shreds every focus-grouped bromide about corporate benevolence he could get his hands on. Those readers unwilling to smile and nod as every day we become more dependent on our phones and apps to do our chores, our jobs, and our socializing can take heart as Larson provides us with maps to all the shallow graves, skeleton filled closets, and invective laced emails Big Tech left behind on its ascent to power. His withering analysis will help readers crack the code of the economic dynamics that allowed these companies to become near-monopolies very early on, and, with a little bit of luck, his calls for digital socialism might just inspire a viral movement for online revolution.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302478950773,"sku":"9781642590319","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781642590319_b33c5a6b-9263-4e77-825c-016535fc3358.jpg?v=1786024763"},{"product_id":"9781785357336","title":"Capitalism vs. Freedom – The Toll Road to Serfdom","description":"For years, we’ve been taught that capitalism is good for freedom. Dominant right-wing talk radio hosts to this day recommend “libertarian” classics like Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom that claim markets free us, and this picture still dominates the schools and the political spectrum. Well get bent, one percent, because Rob Larson’s Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom puts big business under a microscope. This book debunks the conservative classics while demonstrating that the marketplace has its own great centers of power, which the libertarian tradition itself claims is a limit to freedom. In fact, Larson illustrates how capitalism fails both this and other concepts of human liberty, not just failing to establish a right to a share of society’s production, but also leaving us subject to the great power plays of the one percent’s corporate property.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305195483509,"sku":"9781785357336","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781785357336_152244b6-35a3-475f-8379-67a82cb20c1f.jpg?v=1786025813"},{"product_id":"9798888900857","title":"Mastering the Universe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEconomist Rob Larson combines wit, righteous anger, and clear-eyed analysis as he dissects the lifestyle, moral bankruptcy, and stupidly large sums of money hoarded by the disgustingly wealthy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eThe fact that we live in one of the most unequal societies in the history of the world is becoming common knowledge. And while lists of “richest people in x country” may be easy to come by, how much do we really know about the billionaires who sit atop our global economic system? Who are they, \u003cem\u003ereally\u003c\/em\u003e? How did they accumulate their ill-gotten gains? And what kind of depravities do they use to maintain their positions?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTurning their own weapons of class-war against them—from the fawning profiles found in the \u003cem\u003eMansion\u003c\/em\u003e section of the \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e to the national income data buried in white papers meant solely for investors and technocrats—Larson crunches the numbers so you don’t have to.  But he doesn’t stop there, because appreciating the sheer scale of the global wealth gap doesn’t even touch on all the ways the ruling class are making us miserable, breaking our society to pieces, and destroying the planet in their pursuit of ever-increasing power and profit. As we behold whole continents on fire, pandemics thrashing public health systems to smithereens, and declining lifespans for the vast majority, Larson argues that the only way forward is to yank on the emergency break and give capitalism the boot.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311296754037,"sku":"9798888900857","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9798888900857_7e0c4833-e3a3-426a-8b99-c59e4e28a242.jpg?v=1786032695"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-rob-larson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}