First published 2016
Michelle Malkin examines the inventors behind everyday American products in direct response to President Obama's claim that business owners "didn't build that." She profiles the self-taught tinkerers who created razors, bottle caps, flashlights, bridge cables, toilet paper, glass bottles, and hydroelectric plants. These entrepreneurs transformed small ideas into major companies through profit motive, intellectual property protection, patriotism, and faith in American exceptionalism. Malkin argues that progressive critics who demonize these inventors as greedy villains fail to recognize how much modern comfort depends on their innovations. The book celebrates self-made visionaries who built job-creating enterprises while earning private wealth for public benefit. Malkin shows how factors like family values and unwavering belief in American greatness enabled these dreamers to raise living standards through commercial success.
Genres: history, business, american, politics, non-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: celebration-of-self-made-visionaries
336 pages · Paperback · Mercury Ink