Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The steamship industry was one of the first large-scale businesses to be mechanized, and it was in the vanguard of technological change. It was also highly competitive, and soon became large in scale. #2 The triumph of market entrepreneurs in steamboating led to improvements in technology. As one man observed, The boat builders, freed from the domination of the Fulton-Livingston interests, were quick to develop new ideas that before had no encouragement from capital. #3 Vanderbilt was a market entrepreneur who fought monopolies. He cut costs by improving steamship technology and lowering fares. He was called a monopolist by his competitors, but he actually brought competition to the industry. #4 In the 1840s, improving technology changed steamboats into steamships. The new steamers were many times bigger and faster than Fulton’s Clermont. They were sturdy and were built to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
In his book The Myth of the Robber Barons, Folsom distinguishes between political entrepreneurs who ran inefficient businesses supported by government favors, and market entrepreneurs who succeeded by providing better and lower-cost products or services, usually while facing vigorous competition.
ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America so desperately needed from the Great Depression. Folsom takes a critical, revisionist look at Roosevelt's presidency, his economic policies, and his personal life. Elected in 1932 on a buoyant tide of promises to balance the increasingly uncontrollable national budget and reduce the catastrophic unemployment rate, the charismatic thirty-second president not only neglected to pursue those goals, he made dramatic changes to federal programming that directly contradicted his campaign promises. Price fixing, court packing, regressive taxes, and patronism were all hidden inside the alphabet soup of his popular New Deal, putting a financial strain on the already suffering lower classes and discouraging the upper classes from taking business risks that potentially could have jostled national cash flow from dormancy.
From the acclaimed author of New Deal or Raw Deal?, called “eye-opening” by the National Review, comes a fascinating exposé of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s destructive wartime legacy—and its adverse impact on America’s economic and foreign policies today. Did World War II really end the Great Depression—or did President Franklin Roosevelt’s poor judgment and confused management leave Congress with a devastating fiscal mess after the final bomb was dropped? In this provocative new book, historians Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom make a compelling case that FDR’s presidency led to evasive and self-serving wartime policies. At a time when most Americans held isolationist sentiments—a backlash against the stunning carnage of World War I—Roosevelt secretly favored an aggressive interventionist foreign policy. Yet, throughout the 1930s, he spent lavishly on his disastrous New Deal programs and slashed defense spending, leaving America vastly unprepared for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the challenge of fighting World War II. History books tell us the wartime economy was a boon, thanks to massive government spending. But the skyrocketing national debt, food rations, nonexistent luxuries, crippling taxes, labor strikes, and dangerous work of the time tell a different story—one that is hardly the stuff of recovery. Instead, the war ushered in a new era of imperialism for the executive branch. Roosevelt seized private property, conducted illegal wiretaps, tried to silence domestic opposition, and interned 110,000 Japanese Americans. He set a dangerous precedent for entangling alliances in foreign affairs, including his remarkable courtship of Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, while millions of Americans showed the courage, perseverance, and fortitude to make the weapons and fight the war. Was Roosevelt a great wartime leader, as historians almost unanimously assert? The Folsoms offer a thought-provoking revision of his controversial legacy. FDR Goes to War will make America take a second look at one of its most complicated presidents.
Includes material on John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpoint Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, William H. Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, E.H. Harriman, Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Jay Cooke, Daniel Drew, Henry C. Frick, James J. Hill, Charles M. Schwab, Henry Villard, Standard Oil Company, trusts.
From the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War: a "first-rate" narrative history (The New York Times) that brilliantly portrays the emergence, in a remarkably short time, of a recognizably modern America. American Colossus captures the decades between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, when a few breathtakingly wealthy businessmen transformed the United States from an agrarian economy to a world power. From the first Pennsylvania oil gushers to the rise of Chicago skyscrapers, this spellbinding narrative shows how men like Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller ushered in a new era of unbridled capitalism. In the end America achieved unimaginable wealth, but not without cost to its traditional democratic values.
An enlightening overview of America’s misadventures in economic investment from the Revolutionary era to the Obama administration. From the days of George Washington through World War II to today, government subsidies have failed the American people time and again. Draining the Treasury of cash, this doomed attempt to “pick winners” only serves to impede economic growth—and hurt the very companies receiving aid. But why does federal aid seem to have a reverse Midas touch? In Uncle Sam Can’t Count, Burt and Anita Folsom argue that federal officials don’t have the same abilities or incentives as entrepreneurs. In addition, federal control always leads to politicization. And what works for politicians often doesn’t work in the marketplace. Filled with examples of government failures and free market triumphs, from John Jacob Astor to the Wright Brothers, World War II amphibious landing craft to Detroit, Uncle Sam Can’t Count is a hard-hitting critique of government investment that demonstrates why business should be left exclusively to private entrepreneurs.
Examines the impact of entrepreneurs on the history of the United States by analyzing the various industries, steamship, railroads, oil, and steel, that were developed in the nineteenth century.
The warlord period - from 1912 until roughly the beginning of the Second World War - is one of the most extraordinary and colourful in the whole of Chinese history. Yet most English-language studies of the period have focused on either individual warlords or on warlords as a socio-political phenomenon. This book profiles all the prominent warlords of the period, retelling their most notorious exploits and attempting an analysis of their longevity and motivations. Included here are Yuan Shikai, who shared leadership of the Republic with Sun Yatsen before attempting to establish a new dynasty with himself as emperor; the `Christian warlord' Feng Yuxiang, who stands out for his recognition of the benefits to morale of more humane treatment of his troops; and a host of others from throughout the country. Illustrated with photographs of each of the primary characters discussed, China's Warlords will bring the period alive both to new readers and experienced scholars of Chinese history.
A compilation of insights from leading entrepreneurs and innovators. These pages are filled with intimate discussions from the people who redefine the business world every day-a brilliant demonstration of Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship's dedication to the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. Featured executives include for profit entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and corporate and nonprofit innovators. They include top leaders from Cisco, Merck, Campbell Soup, Avon, Schering-Plough, Ecko, Harvard Business School and the United Nations, among others. Book includes access to the videos of their lectures and interviews. *Corporate innovators include: Andrea Jung, Avon - Innovation at Avon; Douglas Conant, Campbell Soup Company - Mission Driven Innovation; Fred Hassan, Warburg Pincus, Schering-Plough - Customer Focus: A Prescription for Driving Innovation; Mervyn Turner, Merck - Building Merck's Future through Open Innovation; Carlos Dominguez, Cisco - Leveraging Collaboration for Innovation; Charles Cascio, Educational Testing Service - The Evolution of an Innovative Business Unit; Peter Weedfald, Gen One Ventures, Circuit City - The Eight Golden Rules of Entrepreneurship; *Entrepreneurs include: Seth Gerszberg, Marc Ecko Enterprises - How I Quit Treading Water and Learned to Swim; Gregory Olsen, GHO Ventures, Sensors Unlimited - Buying and Selling Entrepreneurial Companies; John Bailye, EKR Therapeutics, Dendrite International - Innovative Leadership in Growing Companies; John Crowley, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. - Extraordinary Measures; Diahann Lassus, Lassus Wherley - Creating a Business from Scratch; Kenneth Burkhardt, Verbier Ventures, Dialogic - The Thrills and Chills of Building a High-Tech Company; Lindsay Phillips, SwitchFlops, Inc. - The Story Behind SwitchFlops; Reginald Best, ProtonMedia, Netilla Networks - Plan to Succeed; *Academic innovators include: Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School; Michael Horn, Innosight Institute - Disruptive Innovation; *Family business entrepreneurs include: Leonard Green, The Green Group - Nurturing Innovation in Small Businesses; Shau-wai Lam, DCH Auto Group - Branding for Success; Kurus Elavia, Gateway Group One - Securing Relationships One at a Time; *Nonprofit innovators include: Ralph Nader, Consumer advocate - Social Entrepreneurship: Doing Good While Doing Well; Amir Dossal, United Nations - Building Innovative Partnerships to Heal the World; Maxine Ballen, NJTC - The Path to Entrepreneurship: Seven Rules for Business Success; Lillian Rodriguez Lopez, Hispanic Federation - Justice and Social Entrepreneurship"
