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University of California Press

About the Book

The Selling of "Free Trade" shows how Washington works to accomplish political or economic goals, even when confronted with widespread popular opposition. John R. MacArthur chronicles the brutal and expensive campaign in 1993 that led to passage of the poorly understood, highly controversial law creating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

About the Author

John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine, is an award-winning journalist and author of Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War (California, 1993).

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. DEATH OF A FACTORY: LONG ISLAND CITY
2. THE TRUE BELIEVERS
3. CLINTON ANTES UP
4. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, INC.
5. BUYING THE POT
6. THE PAYOFF
7. COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: NOGALES

AFTERWORD
INDEX

Reviews

"If there is spin, there is counterspin: The Selling of 'Free Trade' is a devastating unraveling of yet another Bill Clinton con job. MacArthur tells the NAFTA story in the voices of those who did the spinning and those who suffered from it. It doesn't get much better."—Seymour M. Hersh

"A gripping and fresh analysis of the corporate construction of an onrushing NAFTA and the human damage in its wake. MacArthur demonstrates what happens when an underdeveloped democracy is confronted by an overdeveloped corporation-governmental oligarchy."—Ralph Nader, consumer advocate.