The Soul of the Service Economy: Wal-Mart and the Making of Christian Free Enterprise, 1929-1994

"The Soul of the Service Economy" explains the rise of Christiancorporate globalism in the twentieth century, that always unfinishedtask of sanctifying capitalism and consumption under Christianity.As the biography of the Sunbelt service sector's "free enterprise"ideology, "The Soul of the Service Economy" is not an examinationof Wal-Mart itself but an analysis of Wal-Mart's world—theinterconnected commercial, religious, and educational institutionswhich both produced the world's largest company and then dependedupon its patronage. This culture united Southwestern entrepreneurs,service providers, middle managers, students, missionaries,and even waged employees in an ethos of Christian free enterprise.On the basis of archival research in local and ephemeral sources,"The Soul of the Service Economy" uses the stories of peoplelinked through Wal-Mart and its philanthropies to understandthe shift to post-Fordist regimes in work, gender relations,education, and geography.