This introduction looks at the rise of the American economy from its colonial and frontier beginnings. What made the United States an attractive testing ground for entrepreneurs? How did the United States come to have the largest business enterprises in the world by the early twentieth century? Why did business organizations gain a central place in American society?
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.
American business people have built the most creative and productive economy in world history. Here is the story of the men and women who made America - from Pilgrim traders to pioneers of the Industrial Revolution and the great innovators of the early twentieth century.
Tells the story of how America’s biggest companies began, operated, and prospered post-World War I This book takes the vantage point of people working within companies as they responded to constant change created by consumers and technology. It focuses on the entrepreneur, the firm, and the industry, by showing—from the inside—how businesses operated after 1920, while offering a good deal of Modern American social and cultural history. The case studies and contextual chapters provide an in-depth understanding of the evolution of American management over nearly 100 years. American Business Since 1920: How It Worked presents historical struggles with decision making and the trend towards relative decentralization through stories of extraordinarily capable entrepreneurs and the organizations they led. It covers: Henry Ford and his competitor Alfred Sloan at General Motors during the 1920s; Neil McElroy at Procter & Gamble in the 1930s; Ferdinand Eberstadt at the government’s Controlled Materials Plan during World War II; David Sarnoff at RCA in the 1950s and 1960s; and Ray Kroc and his McDonald’s franchises in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first; and more. It also delves into such modern success stories as Amazon.com, eBay, and Google. Provides deep analysis of some of the most successful companies of the 20th century Contains topical chapters covering titans of the 2000s Part of Wiley-Blackwell’s highly praised American History Series American Business Since 1920: How It Worked is designed for use in both basic and advanced courses in American history, at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Lewis Issues a Forceful Warning to Industry, 1936 5. GM Managers Work Behind Closed Doors on a Collective Bargaining Policy, 1936 6. Magazine of Wall Street Assesses Corporate Performance for Investors, 1929-1938 7. St. Louis Banker Heads the Defense Plant Corporation, 1940-1944 8. Life Celebrates Henry J. Kaiser and the U.S. Wartime Shipbuilding Program, 1942 9. Mill and Factory Explains How the Aircraft Industry Recruits Women, 1942 ESSAYS Michael A. Bernstein, Why the Great Depression Was Great Howell John Harris, GM, Chrysler, and Unionization Joel Davidson, World War II and the Birth of the Military-Industrial Complex 12. Postwar Challenges and Opportunities: The Culture of Affluence and the Cold War, 1945-1980 DOCUMENTS 1. National Association of Manufacturers Outlines a Plan for Postwar Prosperity, 1944 2. Real Estate Developers Lure Business to the Suburbs, 1948 3.A Concerned Consumer Asks a Big Businessman about the Price of a Nylon Shirt, 1950 4.U.S. News and World Report Explains What the Baby Boom Means to the Economy, 1957 5. Fortune Credits Federal Policies for the Explosion of Motels, 1959 6. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey Compares R & D Expenditures at Home and Abroad, 1962 7. Vietnam War Raises Business Hackles, 1971 ESSAYS Lizabeth Cohen, From Town Center to Shopping Center: The Reconfiguration of Marketplaces in Postwar America Bruce J. Schulman, Fortress Dixie: Defense Spending and the Rise of the Sunbelt 13. Business and the Public Interest: Corporate Responsibility for Environment, Health, and Safety, 1945-2005 DOCUMENTS 1.A Prominent Zoologist Speaks about the Threat of the Modern Economy, 1949 2. Weyerhauser Explains the Forest Industry's Practices, 1949 3. Ralph Nader Blames Detroit Carmakers for Automotive Accidents, 1965 4. Alcoa CEO Explains the Public Responsibility of Private Enterprise, 1967 5. Economist Milton Friedman Urges Business to Focus on Profits, 1970 6. Sun Oil Executives Outlines the Nation's Energy Dilemmas, 1973 7.A Lawmaker Explains the Necessity for Superfund, 1981 8. CIGNA Doctor Critiques Tobacco Advertising, 1987 9. Hawaiians Debate Airport Expansion on Maui, 1996 ESSAYS David B. Sicilia, The Corporation Under Siege Mansel G. Blackford, The Controversy over the Kahului Airport 14. The Great Transition from Manufacturing to Services, 1945-2005 DOCUMENTS 1. Economist Victor R. Fuchs Highlights the Growth of Services, 1965 2. Investment Bankers Association Predicts a Computer Boom, 1963 3. Bill Veeck Assesses Baseball's Marketing, 1963 4. Ray Kroc Explains How He Built the McDonald's Empire, 1968 5. Journalists Probe Transportation Workers' Lives in the Wake of Deregulation, 1992 6. Sam Walton, Ten Rules That Worked for Me, 1992 7.A Congressman Explores Wal-Mart's Labor Practices in the United States and Asia, 2004 ESSAYS Thomas S. Dicke, We Deliver: Domino's Pizza and the Franchising Method Richard H.K. Vietor, American Airlines Competes after Deregulation Simon Head, Inside Wal-Mart 15. American Business in the World, 1945-2005 DOCUMENTS 1, Fortune Urges Business to Export Capitalism and Democracy, 1947 2. High Labor Costs and Foreign Competition Confound Steelmakers, 1968 3. National Industrial Conference Board Assesses the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1969 4. Pharmaceutical Giant Bristol-Myers Encounters Cultural Differences in Japan and the USSR in the 1970s 5, Time Documents the Agricultural Surplus, 1986 6. Journalist Thomas L. Friedman Describes McDonald's Global Expansion, 1996 7. Washington Think Tank Calculates NAFTA's Impact on Jobs, 2001 (table and maps) 8. USDA Reports NAFTA's Benefits to Agricultural Exports, 2001 ESSAYS Geoffrey Jones, Multinationals and Globalization Martin N. Baily and Diana Farrell, Exploding the Myths about Offshoring.
The effect of a commercialized Internet on American business, from the boom in e-commerce and adjustments by bricks-and-mortar businesses to file-sharing and community building.
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.
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.
A collection of 34 business stories that chart the successes and failures of businesses and their leaders. The stories originally appeared in the American Business History Center's free weekly email newsletter.
