Sean Delehanty is a historian of American political economy, including the history of capitalism in the United States in the twentieth century. He received a PhD in history from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from the University of Rochester's Simon Business School. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.

"For the past generation, Americans have taken for granted that corporations exist to create shareholder value. Yet this idea is a radical departure from the past. Delehanty traces the rise of shareholder value from the conglomerate mergers of the 1960s to the bust-up takeovers of the 1980s and the pervasive spread of stock-based compensation. Through it all, he shows the powerful role played by the ideas and actions of economists--for better and worse."--Jerry Davis University of Michigan

"Richly researched and compellingly crafted, Company Men provides a much-needed history of the 'shareholder value revolution' that transformed American capitalism. Expertly navigating the complex world where economic theory and business practice meet, Delehanty explains how a community of managers, intellectuals, and lobbyists refashioned the fundamental ideology of corporate management. In so doing, Delehanty offers a profound new understanding of the origins of the bifurcated, unequal economy that we now accept as normal."--Benjamin C. Waterhouse University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Company Men [explores] the idea that corporations exist to maximize the value of their shareholders' investments, focusing on the history of this idea, why corporations chose to adopt it, and what it has meant for Americans."

-- "Journal of Economic Literature"

"It's not a given that a business would be managed for the sake of investors rather than its employees, local community, or some other social good. Yet, that narrow understanding of what private enterprise is all about has become an assumption held by capitalism's champions and critics. Delehanty explains how this happened, what the consequences have been, and what could have been different along the way."

-- "A Public Witness"

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Pub date: 2025-11-04

Length: 272 pages