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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