Present-day advocates of antitrust reform referred to as “New Brandeisians” have invoked history in pressing the case for change. The New Brandeisians bemoan the upending of a mid-twentieth-century “golden age” of antitrust by an intellectual movement known as the Chicago School. In fact, mid-twentieth-century enforcement of antitrust was uneven and large corporations exercised substantial market power. The Chicago School also was not as decisive an agent of change as the New Brandeisians suggest. Doubts about the efficacy of government regulation and concerns about foreign competition did much to foster the late twentieth-century counterrevolution that antitrust experienced.

当今被称为“新布兰代斯主义者”的反垄断改革倡导者援引历史来推动变革。新布兰代斯主义者哀叹被称为芝加哥学派的知识分子运动颠覆了 20 世纪中叶的反垄断“黄金时代”。事实上，20 世纪中叶的反垄断执法不平衡，大公司行使了巨大的市场力量。芝加哥学派也不像新布兰代斯学派所暗示的那样具有决定性的变革推动力。对政府监管效力的怀疑和对外国竞争的担忧在很大程度上助长了反垄断所经历的 20 世纪后期的反革命。