One feature of economic life so pervasive that it almost escapes notice is the dictatorial power of bosses compared to workers. You almost have to be of a certain age to appreciate that it was not ever thus.

There was a time when the state and the courts intervened to level the playing field, to give workers something close to equal bargaining power. This stance was both the fruit of labor power—the militant organizing of the 1930s—and served to reinforce labor power through the influence of strong unions and effective laws.

The laws included the 1935 Wagner Act, which put the state on the side of collective bargaining, and the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which created minimum wages and maximum hours, and many more. This legacy also included the government-brokered role of unions as co-equal social partners during World War II.

This system had a half-life of maybe a generation, before capitalists took the gloves off. Today, grotesquely unequal bargaining power is once again the norm, as corporations bust unions with impunity, conservative courts eviscerate worker rights legislated by Congress, and corporations convert real jobs to gigs.

The latter occurs not because the technology requires it, but because in a climate of unequal bargaining power where the state has switched sides, corporations can get away with it. Anybody who wants to understand the grotesque income inequality of this era needs to appreciate this history.

Happily, the Economic Policy Institute (on whose board I serve) has just launched a project on Unequal Power. It is the indispensable frame of analysis for political and economic comprehension and action.

The project has commissioned two dozen reports from historians, economists, political scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars. The first paper, by Samuel Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of Michigan who was once law clerk to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, explains just how conservative courts have taken us back to the pre–New Deal era in undermining worker rights legislated by Congress.

With worse to follow if far-right Republicans tighten their grip on the courts. You need to read this. It will be on the midterm.