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.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780190622503
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter