When Adam Smith and others developed the theory of free markets, it was a progressive project: the freedom of markets was also meant to lead to the liberation of wage earners—from the constraints of authoritarian structures, but above all from the oppression by employers. In her furious book, Elizabeth Anderson shows what has become of this beautiful idea: pure ideology in the hands of powerful economic actors who, in truth, care little for the freedom and rights of workers. The Industrial Revolution already dissolved the formerly positive connection between free markets and free workers, as Anderson explains in the historical part of her investigation. In the next step, she redefines the current relationship between employers and employees: as one between governments and the governed, where these "governments" are private.