Download or read book A History of Small Business in America written by Mansel G. Blackford and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the colonial era to the present day, small businesses have been an integral part of American life. First published in 1991 and now thoroughly updated, this study explores the central but ever-changing role played by small enterprises in the nation's economic, political and cultural development.
Download or read book American Business History a Very Short Introduction written by Walter A. Friedman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-04-15 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the early twentieth century, it became common to describe the United States as a "business civilization." President Coolidge in 1925 said, "The chief business of the American people is business." More recently, historian Sven Beckert characterized Henry Ford's massive manufactory as the embodiment of America: "While Athens had its Parthenon and Rome its Colosseum, the United States had its River Rouge Factory in Detroit..." How did business come to assume such power and cultural centrality in America? This volume explores the variety of business enterprise in the United States and analyzes its presence in the country's economy, its evolution over time, and its meaning in society. It introduces readers to formative business leaders (including Elbert Gary, Harlow Curtice, and Mary Kay Ash), leading firms (Mellon Bank, National Cash Register, Xerox), and fiction about business people (The Octopus, Babbitt, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit). It also discusses Alfred Chandler, Joseph Schumpeter, Mira Wilkins, and others who made significant contributions to understanding of America's business history. This VSI pursues its three central themes - the evolution, scale, and culture of American business - in a chronological framework stretching from the American Revolution to today. The first theme is evolution: How has U.S. business evolved over time? How have American companies competed with one another and with foreign firms? Why have ideas about strategy and management changed? Why did business people in the mid-twentieth century celebrate an "organizational" culture promising long-term employment in the same company, while a few decades later entrepreneurship was prized? Second is scale: Why did business assume such enormous scale in the United States? Was the rise of gigantic corporations due to the industriousness of its population, or natural resources, or government policies? And third, culture: What are the characteristics of a "business civilization"? How have opinions on the meaning of business changed? In the late nineteenth century, Andrew Carnegie believed that America's numerous enterprises represented an exuberant "triumph of democracy." After World War II, however, sociologist William H. Whyte saw business culture as stultifying, and historian Richard Hofstadter wrote, "Once great men created fortunes; today a great system creates fortunate men." How did changes in the nature of business affect popular views? Walter A. Friedman provides the long view of these important developments.
Download or read book American Enterprise written by Andy Serwer and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be an American? What are American ideas and values? American Enterprise, the companion book to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, aims to answer these questions about the American experience through an exploration of its economic and commercial history. It argues that by looking at the intersection of capitalism and democracy, we can see where we as a nation have come from and where we might be going in the future. Richly illustrated with images of objects from the museum’s collections, American Enterprise includes a 1794 dollar coin, Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone, a brass cash register from Marshall Fields, Sam Walton’s cap, and many other goods and services that have shaped American culture. Historical and contemporary advertisements are also featured, emphasizing the evolution of the relationship between producers and consumers over time. Interspersed in the historical narrative are essays from today’s industry leaders—including Sheila Bair, Adam Davidson, Bill Ford, Sally Greenberg, Fisk Johnson, Hank Paulson, Richard Trumka, and Pat Woertz—that pose provocative questions about the state of contemporary American business and society. American Enterprise is a multi-faceted survey of the nation’s business heritage and corresponding social effects that is fundamental to an understanding of the lives of the American people, the history of the United States, and the nation’s role in global affairs.
Download or read book Reimagining Business History written by Philip Scranton and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vigorous call for rethinking the field of business history. Business history needs a shake-up, Philip Scranton and Patrick Fridenson argue, as many businesses go global and cultural contexts become critical. Reimagining Business History prods practitioners to take new approaches to entrepreneurial intentions, company scale, corporate strategies, local infrastructure, employee well-being, use of resources, and long-term environmental consequences. During the past half century, the history of American business became an unusually active and rewarding field of scholarship, partly because of the primacy of postwar American capital, at home and abroad, and the rise of a consumer culture but also because of the theoretical originality of Alfred D. Chandler. In a field long given over to banal company histories and biographies of tycoons, Chandler took the subject seriously enough to ask about the large patterns and causes of corporate success. Chandler and his students found the richest material for theorizing about the course of business history in large companies and their institutional structures and cultures. Meantime, Scranton and others found smaller firms, those specializing in batch work as opposed to mass-produced goods, far closer to the norm and more telling. Scranton and Fridenson believe that the time has come for a sweeping rethinking of the field, its materials, and the kinds of questions its practitioners should be asking. How can this field develop in an age of global markets, growing information technology, and diminishing resources? A transnational collaboration between two senior scholars, Reimagining Business History offers direction in forty-four short, pithy essays.
Download or read book The History of Black Business in America written by Juliet E. K. Walker and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging study Stephen Foster explores Puritanism in England and America from its roots in the Elizabethan era to the end of the seventeenth century. Focusing on Puritanism as a cultural and political phenomenon as well as a religious movement, Foster addresses parallel developments on both sides of the Atlantic and firmly embeds New England Puritanism within its English context. He provides not only an elaborate critque of current interpretations of Puritan ideology but also an original and insightful portrayal of its dynamism. According to Foster, Puritanism represented a loose and incomplete alliance of progressive Protestants, lay and clerical, aristocratic and humble, who never decided whether they were the vanguard or the remnant. Indeed, in Foster's analysis, changes in New England Puritanism after the first decades of settlement did not indicate secularization and decline but instead were part of a pattern of change, conflict, and accomodation that had begun in England. He views the Puritans' own claims of declension as partisan propositions in an internal controversy as old as the Puritan movement itself. The result of these stresses and adaptations, he argues, was continued vitality in American Puritanism during the second half of the seventeenth century. Foster draws insights from a broad range of souces in England and America, including sermons, diaries, spiritual autobiographies, and colony, town, and court records. Moreover, his presentation of the history of the English and American Puritan movements in tandem brings out the fatal flaws of the former as well as the modest but essential strengths of the latter.
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Business History written by John Wilson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Companion to Business History is a definitive work of reference, and authoritative, international source on business history. Compiled by leading scholars in the field, it offers both researchers and students an introduction and overview of current scholarship in this expanding discipline. Drawing on a wealth of international contributions, this volume expands the field and explores how business history interacts theoretically and methodologically with other fields. It charts the origins and development of business history and its global reach from Latin America and Africa, to North America and Europe. With this multi-perspective approach, it illustrates the unique contribution of business history and its relationship with a range of other disciplines, from finance and banking to gender issues in corporations. The Routledge Companion to Business History is a vital source of reference for students and researchers in the fields of business history, corporate governance and business ethics. "This collection is an excellent starting point for understanding the field and finding areas where business history, management theory, and social science can intersect." Canadian Business History Newsletter, January 2019
Download or read book Business History around the World written by Franco Amatori and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-18 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2003 book offered the first in-depth international survey of contemporary research and debates in business history. Over the two decades leading to its publication, enormous advances had been made in writing the history of business enterprise and business systems. Historians are documenting and analyzing the evolution of a wide range of important companies and systems, their patterns of innovation, production, and distribution, their financial affairs, their political activities, and their social impact. Each essay is written by a prominent authority who provides an assessment of the state and significance of research in his or her area. This volume is a reference work that will be of immense value to historians, economists, management researchers, and others concerned to access the latest insights on the evolution of business throughout the world.
Download or read book Business Enterprise in American History written by Mansel G. Blackford and published by Cengage Learning. This book was released on 1994 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timelines and examples from well-known companies help students gain a better understanding of the important connections among public policy and businesses, as well as a comparative understanding of business history over time and in recent decades.
Download or read book A History of American Business written by Keith L. Bryant and published by Pearson. This book was released on 1990 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronological/topical survey of business history in America. Designed as a core text.
Download or read book The Land of Enterprise written by Benjamin C. Waterhouse and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking account of the development of American business from the colonial period to the present explains that the history of the United States can best be understood not as a search for freedom—but as a search for wealth and prosperity. The Land of Enterprise charts the development of American business from the colonial period to the present. It explores the nation’s evolving economic, social, and political landscape by examining how different types of enterprising activities rose and fell, how new labor and production technologies supplanted old ones—and at what costs—and how Americans of all stripes responded to the tumultuous world of business. In particular, historian Benjamin Waterhouse highlights the changes in business practices, the development of different industries and sectors, and the complex relationship between business and national politics. From executives and bankers to farmers and sailors, from union leaders to politicians to slaves, business history is American history, and Waterhouse pays tribute to the unnamed millions who traded their labor (sometimes by choice, often not) or decided what products to consume (sometimes informed, often not). Their story includes those who fought against what they saw as an oppressive system of exploitation as well as those who defended free markets from any outside intervention. The Land of Enterprise is not only a comprehensive look into our past achievements, but offers clues as to how to confront the challenges of today’s world: globalization, income inequality, and technological change.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Business History written by Geoffrey Jones and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-01-25 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of research in business history. Business historians study the historical evolution of business systems, entrepreneurs and firms, as well as their interaction with their political, economic, and social environment. They address issues of central concern to researchers in management studies and business administration, as well as economics, sociology and political science, and to historians. They employ a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, but all share a belief in the importance of understanding change over time. The Oxford Handbook of Business History has brought together leading scholars to provide a comprehensive, critical, and interdisciplinary examination of business history, organized into four parts: Approaches and Debates; Forms of Business Organization; Functions of Enterprise; and Enterprise and Society. The Handbook shows that business history is a wide-ranging and dynamic area of study, generating compelling empirical data, which has sometimes confirmed and sometimes contested widely-held views in management and the social sciences. The Oxford Handbook of Business History is a key reference work for scholars and advanced students of Business History, and a fascinating resource for social scientists in general.
Download or read book A Brief History of Entrepreneurship written by Joe Carlen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brief History of Entrepreneurship charts how the pursuit of profit by private individuals has been a prime mover in revolutionizing civilization. Entrepreneurs often butt up against processes, technologies, social conventions, and even laws. So they circumvent, innovate, and violate to obtain what they want. This creative destruction has brought about overland and overseas trade, colonization, and a host of revolutionary technologies—from caffeinated beverages to the personal computer—that have transformed society. Consulting rich archival sources, including some that have never before been translated, Carlen maps the course of human history through nine episodes when entrepreneurship reshaped our world. Highlighting the most colorful characters of each era, he discusses Mesopotamian merchants' creation of the urban market economy; Phoenician merchant-sailors intercontinental trade, which came to connect Africa, Asia, and Europe; Chinese tea traders' invention of paper money; the colonization of the Americas; and the current "flattening" of the world's economic playing field. Yet the pursuit of profit hasn't always moved us forward. From slavery to organized crime, Carlen explores how entrepreneurship can sometimes work at the expense of others. He also discusses the new entrepreneurs who, through the nascent space tourism industry, are leading humanity to a multiplanetary future. By exploring all sides of this legacy, Carlen brings much-needed detail to the role of entrepreneurship in revolutionizing civilization.
Download or read book A History of Socially Responsible Business c 1600 1950 written by William A Pettigrew and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the changing reciprocal relationships between corporations and their various social obligations over the very long term - from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Chapters from emerging and established business historians assess the full range of social obligations that corporations held historically. By adopting an innovative methodological approach that is long-term and comparative, this book offers a challenge to the literature on corporate history and will be of interest to researchers and academics in the field of finance and business history.
Download or read book Business History written by J. F. Wilson and published by State of the Art in Business Research. This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of business history offers some radical ways forward for a discipline which is rich in potential. This shortform book offers an expert overview of how the field has relevance for contemporary business studies as well as the social sciences more broadly, as well as practitioners interested in historical perspectives. This book not only provides a comprehensive review of how the discipline of business history has evolved over the last century, but it also lays out an agenda for the next decade. Focusing specifically on the 'three pillars' of research, teaching and practical impact, the authors have outlined how while the first has flourished across many continents, the latter two are struggling to overcome significant challenges associated with how the discipline is perceived, especially in the social sciences. A solution is proposed that would involve academics working more closely with practitioners, thereby increasing the discipline's credibility across key stakeholders. The work here presented provides a concise and easily digestible overview of the topic which will be of interest to scholars, researchers and advanced students focusing on the evolution of business history and its impact on the way the world conducts business today.
Download or read book Nothing Succeeds Like Failure written by Steven Conn and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do business schools actually make good on their promises of "innovative," "outside-the-box" thinking to train business leaders who will put society ahead of money-making? Do they help society by making better business leaders? No, they don't, Steven Conn asserts, and what's more they never have. In throwing down a gauntlet on the business of business schools, Conn's Nothing Succeeds Like Failure examines the frictions, conflicts, and contradictions at the heart of these enterprises and details the way business schools have failed to resolve them. Beginning with founding of the Wharton School in 1881, Conn measures these schools' aspirations against their actual accomplishments and tells the full and disappointing history of missed opportunities, unmet aspirations, and educational mistakes. Conn then poses a set of crucial questions about the role and function of American business schools. The results aren't pretty. Posing a set of crucial questions about the function of American business schools, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure is pugnacious and controversial. Deeply researched and fun to read, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure argues that the impressive façades of business school buildings resemble nothing so much as collegiate versions of Oz. Conn pulls back the curtain to reveal a story of failure to meet the expectations of the public, their missions, their graduates, and their own lofty aspirations of producing moral and ethical business leaders.
Download or read book A History of Small Business in America written by Mansel G. Blackford and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2003-11-20 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the colonial era to the present day, small businesses have been an integral part of American life. First published in 1991 and now thoroughly revised and updated, A History of Small Business in America explores the central but ever-changing role played by small enterprises in the nation's economic, political, and cultural development. Examining small businesses in manufacturing, sales, services, and farming, Mansel Blackford argues that while small firms have always been important to the nation's development, their significance has varied considerably in different time periods and in different segments of our economy. Throughout, he relates small business development to changes in America's overall business and economic systems and offers comparisons between the growth of small business in the United States to its development in other countries. He places special emphasis on the importance of small business development for women and minorities. Unique in its breadth, this book provides the only comprehensive overview of these significant topics.
Download or read book Entrepreneurs Who Changed History written by DK and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 963 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether titans of industry, influential business leaders, or creators of history's most recognizable brands, these entrepreneurs had the vision, innovation, and ruthless determination to make their marks on our society in indelible ways. Boldly illustrated and comprehensive in its scope and depth, Entrepreneurs Who Changed History profiles more than 90 industry leaders across the world and throughout the ages - from the enterprising bankers of the medieval world and the merchants of an empire to the titans of industry and the geniuses of Silicon Valley. Combining accessible text with specially-commissioned illustrated portraits in a range of bold artwork styles, photographs, and infographics, entries showcase each individual in a fresh, visual way. The towering personalities behind some of history's most recognizable brands and companies - their ruthlessness, tenacity, creativity, and sheer grit - are all brought to vivid life. Profiling the kings and queens of commerce and trade, Entrepreneurs Who Changed History features the familiar faces of Vanderbilt and Rockefeller, Ford and Ferrari, Gates and Zuckerberg, alongside lesser-known figures such as the enterprising women of colonial America, the emancipated enslaved people who became millionaires against all odds, and the individuals powering today's emerging economies.
