Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. Left to perish in debris
The contradictions of economic education
Selling America to Americans
Expertise and affirmation
The great free enterprise campaign
The new economics
From institutions to markets
The triumphs of economic education
Conclusion

"Caroline Jack reveals how specifically American capitalism has been created and made to seem inevitable through the propagation of its rhetoric and values in the most ephemeral of materials: public service announcements, pamphlets, educational films, and games--what she calls collectively 'economic education media.' These items, which found their ways into classrooms and onto the airwaves, promoted a distinctive conservatism under the cloaks of public service and civic education, linking and defining such protean terms as 'the American way of life' and 'free enterprise.' This rhetoric remains dominant--a harbinger of the power of disinformation that so besets us today