Rise of an American Business Corporation (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics)

Book Description

Mixed Harvest explores rural responses to the transformation of the northern United States from an agricultural society into an urban and industrial one. According to Hal S. Barron, country people from New England to North Dakota negotiated the rise of large-scale organizational society and consumer culture in ways marked by both resistance and accommodation, change and continuity.

Between 1870 and 1930, communities in the rural North faced a number of challenges. Reformers and professionals sought to centralize authority and diminish local control over such important aspects of rural society as schools and roads; large-scale business corporations wielded increasing market power, to the detriment of independent family farmers; and an encroaching urban-based consumer culture threatened rural beliefs in the primacy of their local communities and the superiority of country life. But, Barron argues, by reconfiguring traditional rural values of localism, independence, republicanism, and agrarian fundamentalism, country people successfully created a distinct rural subculture. Consequently, agrarian society continued to provide a counterpoint to the dominant trends in American society well into the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

See The Exotic Farmer In His Native Environment.......2004-11-01

Reading Barron's study of rural life makes one sympathetic to the animals on a safari tour, overhearing a guide's explanation of the savage beasts' interaction with their native environment. A fascinating and well-documented history, it is nonetheless an outsider's view; the perspective of a man who considered himself a coastal resident even while attending Oberlin College. (Or so Barron's class reunion report on Oberlin's webpage suggests.)

Barron's society, even while in transformation, is sharply delineated between farm, village, and city populations, each with its own set of needs and unique social values. In spite of the collection of case histories, the individual is entirely absent from Barron's work, as people in his history act exclusively as representatives of their communities.

In Barron's safari tour, rural people are prey, and the predators are much sexier. Every new institution, from the graded school to the farmers' grain cooperative, is either forced from the outside or a response to threats. The farmers, he constantly suggests, are only interested in preserving the values and lifestyle of the past, even begrudging students the new-fangled invention of clean toilets. When farmers do accept modern convenience it is because they are lured by shiny things - mantle clocks or free movie tickets - rather than because they believe in the need for change. Although agricultural cooperatives, good roads, and consolidated schools improved the quality of rural life, Barron never suggests that improvement was desired or planned by those involved.

Ironically, the transformed society is now traditional. Barron's book, in a sense, is a collection of "just-so" stories, explaining the origins of the Farm Bureau or the small-town social gathering. The "cruising" teenagers of Vincennes, Indiana may be alien to Barron, but they have their roots in the great transformation of the 1920s. And here is its appeal in the Midwest: it's the opportunity for the lion to step out of the safari park and say, "oh, that's what's going on!"

But Barron is writing about people, not lions, and yet his people behave more instinctively than rationally. He constantly refers to "unadorned, agrarian virtues," without ever explaining the virtues, or how they guide decisions. Fear of change seems to be the farmer's only motivation. The outsiders are either benevolent experts or fierce competitors, but only they display the capacity for rational planning rather than response. A Midwestern reader, or one from the rural north, may read Barron's work and enjoy the history, but I fear that readers from larger cities will be left looking on farmlands and their residents as exotic, backward, marginalized, and very, very, different.

Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860-1900

Average customer rating:

Disappointing
a brilliant history of the origins of modern capitalism
The World's Business is New York's Business
The World's Business is New York's Business
Well written Economic History

Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860-1900
Thomas Kessner
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0684813513

Amazon.com

The epicenter of the American economy since the Civil War and the birthplace of modern capitalism, New York City played a significant role in transforming "a small nation of scattered farms into the world's leading economic power," writes Thomas Kessner. Focusing on the four decades between 1860 and 1900, Kessner engagingly illustrates how Gotham City, in addition to funding the Union victory and financing the railroads heading west, also became the nation's busiest port and the center of banking, information, and manufacturing by attracting the most driven, energetic, competitive, and innovative people in the world. Woven into his narrative are detailed portraits of legendary individuals such as John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbuilt, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan, all of whom defined the Gilded Age and ushered in the American century. Possessing the right stuff at precisely the right moment in history, these men took full advantage of the permissive, even chaotic, business climate of New York to create colossal wealth for themselves as well as the nation, rewriting the rules of commerce and investing the process: "No succeeding generation enjoyed the economic power, the open political atmosphere, and the shaping influence available to this group of capitalists," Kessner writes. This remarkable boom (and occasional bust) period also triggered an ethical shift in which "business decisions came to turn less on what was right or good, than on what was strictly legal." Greed and corruption were rampant during this time as many unscrupulous speculators hurried to cash in before regulations closed loopholes and laws imposed rigid rules of conduct.

Kessner does an excellent job of capturing the excitement of this era in which the American economy was transformed from a vast network of many small businesses to a relatively few number of large corporations. In presenting this rich story, the author makes clear that the city's greatest asset was the equal opportunity it offered—a claim that still holds true today, making the allure of New York as strong as ever. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

We take it for granted today that New York City is the nation's financial capital. But why New York? Why not Boston or Philadelphia, Baltimore or Charleston -- or any of the other East Coast cities? In Capital City Thomas Kessner tells the story of how an undistinguished port city rose to become the center of finance in the United States -- and the world.

With the opening of the Erie Canal and access to the Great Lakes and the Midwest, New York became the principal port and chief trading center of a growing nation. Some of New York's merchants -- most notably the all-but-forgotten Moses Taylor -- discovered that lending money to shippers was more profitable than shipping itself. As shipping prospered and money accumulated in New York, a growing banking center emerged. By the time of the Civil War, New York was the chief financier of the Union cause.

From across the land, New York attracted the driven, ambitious men who would direct the post?Civil War expansion of the nation, underwriting the development of the West and the building of the world's largest railroad network. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller were drawn to New York's business culture of daring capital, bold investment, and economic venture. New York banks set the interest rates for the nation. New York's stock exchange fixed the price of securities. New York investors financed and dominated the large new corporations, and Wall Street became synonymous with the power of money. Despite panics and depressions, labor movements and populist crusades, Wall Street converted American industry from family-owned businesses to integrated corporations that drew on banking, accounting, and legal services all located in new office buildings in a booming downtown business district. New York was literally reconstructed by business interests that determined the location of parks, transportation, and museums. A new upper-class culture developed and influenced other leading cities.

When John Pierpont Morgan first arrived on Wall Street, not a single industrial concern was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. By the time he completed the U.S. Steel consolidation, the NYSE listed more than 1,000 companies, including the foundation businesses of the twentieth-century economy.

Capital City is the story of how Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and colleagues no less colorful helped transform New York and change the nation in the process.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2005-08-29

I thought this book would have a lot more to offer. Is not at all interesting, but rather wordy and heavy to follow.

a brilliant history of the origins of modern capitalism.......2004-07-27

This book is highly readable, although written by a history professor, and reads like almost like a novel, with plots, sub-plots and a great story.
The book describes the psychogeography of New York City in the last half of the 19th century and the brilliant, eccentric and many times shady: businessmen, politicians, civic reformers, professionals, labor leaders and others who formed the character of the great city while working out the structure and basic methods of corporate capitalism. The author explains why new york was aptly disposed for this formative role, versus other potential suitors such as Boston or Philadelphia. It also gives some insights into the urban development of new york, which, in spite of sincere efforts and unique achievements (e.g. Central Park) by many of its more inspired civic doyens, seems to reflect the requirements of business and the vestiges of political corruption: vertical growth and size were the main criteria, versus the more human dimensions dictated by a residentially-focussed city such as Paris. Indeed, as an Irishman, I was somewhat dismayed to read about the misdeeds of the Tammany Hall clique. Alas, the truth hurts, and professor Kesson deals with the

The World's Business is New York's Business.......2004-04-12

In his book, "Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860-1900", Thomas Kessner has taken what might be considered a dry subject and made it a swift-moving narrative of power, ego, and intrigue, on the one hand, and another narrative of civic pride, fiscal genius, and apparent historic inevitability.

What becomes clear in this epic story is that everything we associate with New York can be seen as deriving from its economic power. Certainly, the immense financial institutions, the extravagant city lifestyle, and the old shipping and railroad dominance of the city come to mind when we think of New York City's amazing economic influence. But Professor Kessner also makes it clear that other New York trademarks would have been impossible without it: the parks and the Brooklyn Bridge; the philanthropic endeavors and museums (sparked by such men as John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan); even its consolidation of all five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898 is seen as a reflection of the corporate consolidations going on in the business community. This is a fascinating thesis that is easily proved by Professor Kessner's impressive research.

What holds the book together and keeps the reader's attention (well, this reader at least), is the cast of irascible characters and their single-minded purpose to make lots of money. Not surprisingly these men progress from the merely greedy to the mercenary and cold-blooded. Compared to Carnegie, Gould, Morgan, and Vanderbilt, men like John J. Astor, A.T. Stewart and Moses Taylor come off looking like Cub Scouts. Carnegie's vicious anti-labor practices, Morgan's tyrannic disposition, Gould's unabashed attempts to own everything, and Vanderbilt's contempt for charity, are brilliantly captured, warts and all, by Professor Kessner. Of course, not everything these men did can be viewed as self-serving greed. Gould did what he did because they system as it existed allowed him to. And had not Morgan reined in the wild and wooly railroad industry, the larger economy would suffer. And his creation of US Steel--which greatly profitted Andrew Carnegie--set the standards for 20th century corporate culture in America and the world.

Cementing these tales of unchecked love for Mammon are the stories of labor's attempts to share in the profits or, at the very least, earn a fair wage. The selfless quests of remarkable men like Andrew Green, Samuel Gompers and Henry George make the picture whole. "Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860-1900" is a brilliant study, and a testimony to Professor Kessner's dedication and research. I recommend it highly.

The World's Business is New York's Business.......2004-04-12

Well written Economic History.......2003-11-20

Capital City is a scholarly examination of the development of New York City in the age of unfettered Capitalism when great fortunes were made overnight. The book explains in great detail how characters such as Moses Taylor, Cornelieus Vanderbilt and Jay Gould contributed in ways both beneficial and harmful to the growing American economy as well as to the economic and civic life of New York itself. The sense of a wide open country with all economic activity being governed out of the growing financial community gathering strenghth in lower Manhattan at the end of the Civil War is clearly conveyed.
This is a very entertaining and enlightening book. If you have an interest in History, Economics or Finance then I would highly recommend this.

British Investments and the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901 : Evolution of International Business, 1800-1945 (The Rise of International Business)

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Welcome Back for a Classic

British Investments and the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901 : Evolution of International Business, 1800-1945 (The Rise of International Business)
C. C. Spence
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415190096

Customer Reviews:

Welcome Back for a Classic.......2006-07-20

It's good to welcome back this classic of U.S. mining history. Clark C. Spence's British Investments and the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901 has been the starting place for looking at foreign investment in American mining ever since its publication in 1958, when it won the American Historical Association's distinguished Beveridge Award.

In order to progress, American mining in the West needed lots and lots of development capital. Local capitalists in the states and territories provided some of the initial upfront capital. Gold Rush enriched San Francisco stepped into the breach, but increasingly ever more capital was needed. Mining promoters turned to the East and to Europe, particularly Britain, for funding.

Bill Robbins' Colony & Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West provides a good discussion of this evolution in funding resources as he explores his theme of the capitalization and globalization of the West. And this is where Spence comes in, examining the promotional efforts to engage British capital, as well as the problems associated with distant and foreign investment. Amidst the general discussion, he particularly focuses on the Emma Silver Mining Company, Ltd., in Utah as a case study. Ironically, while British capital played a key role in developing the American mining industry during these years, very few of the 500+ British companies involved made any money.

W. Turrentine Jackson's recently reissued classic Treasure Hill: Portrait of a Silver Camp, which is also wonderful to have back in print, provides further illustration of the role and problems of British investment, in this instance the Eberhardt & Aurora Mining company in the White Pines Mining District in Nevada. Jeremy Mouat's Roaring Days: Rossland's Mines & the History of British Columbia is also enlightening since it offers a comparison with British investment across the border from Washington and Idaho in British Columbia.

Spences's British Investments in the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901 is essential to understanding the history of American mining history, as is his more recent Mining Engineers & the American West: The Lace-Boot Brigade, 1849-1933, which has also been republished by the University of Idaho Press. Now the Mining History Association offers the Clark C. Spence Award for the best book published on American mining history.

Business, Money and the Rise of Corporate PACs in American Elections

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Business, Money and the Rise of Corporate PACs in American Elections
Theodore J. Eismeier , and Philip H. Pollock
Manufacturer: Quorum Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

State & Local Government | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

The authors begin by looking at the overall role of business in American politics, exploring the larger issues of the role of business in society, how that role is played and with what effect, and whether business should play any role at all. They then turn to a consideration of corporate PACs from an organization perspective and describe the relationship between PACs and the political environment that gave rise to their formation. Using their own considerable research on the subject, they explore both the policial geography of corporate PACs and the operation of PACs in the campaign environment. Finally, the authors address the central question of what PACs will become in the future, under different social, political, and economic conditions. Written for both political scientist and professionals in the field of corporate-government relations, this is a timely contribution to the ongoing debate on the relative merits of corporate PACs.

Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business

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Well documented history of how corporations learned to create images for public consumption

Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business
Roland Marchand
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520087194

Amazon.com

Around the turn of the century--long before corporations cared about such things as public image--society cowered beneath the lengthy shadows cast by monster companies. The soulless corporation, ensconced in monolithic skyscrapers and populated by army-sized staffs, was defended by smug men like J.P. Morgan, who believed he owed "the public nothing." One depression and a world war later, corporations began to realize the value of connecting with Main Street, small-town America. By recasting themselves as "good neighbors," businesses such as AT&T and U.S. Steel proved to consumers that they posed no threat to democracy or the American way. Roland Marchand's Creating the Corporate Soul provides a brilliant look at this transformation, showing how spin doctors gave these callous giants a thorough makeover. Filled with entertaining print ads and interesting case studies, the book shows us the power of public relations and corporate image. Marchand's exhaustive study may even prompt readers to take another look at modern corporations and ask them to reconsider what lies beneath their facades.

Book Description

Over the course of the twentieth century the popular perception of America's giant corporations has undergone an astonishing change. Condemned as dangerous leviathans in the century's first decades, by 1945 major corporations had become respected, even revered, institutions. Roland Marchand's lavishly illustrated and carefully researched book tells how large companies such as AT&T and U.S. Steel created their own "souls" in order to reassure consumers and politicians that bigness posed no threat to democracy or American values.
Marchand traces this important transformation in the culture of capitalism by offering a series of case studies of such corporate giants as General Motors, General Electric, Metropolitan Life Insurance, and Du Pont Chemicals. Marchand examines the rhetorical and visual imagery developed by corporate leaders to win public approval and build their own internal corporate culture. In the "golden era" of the 1920s, companies boasted of their business statesmanship, but in the Depression years many of them turned in desperation to forms of public relations that strongly defended the capitalist system. During World War II public relations gained new prominence within corporate management as major companies linked themselves with Main-Street, small-town America. By the war's end, the corporation's image as a "good neighbor" had largely replaced that of the "soulless giant." American big business had succeeded in wrapping increasingly complex economic relationships in the comforting aura of familiarity.
Marchand, author of the widely acclaimed Advertising the American Dream (1985), provides an elegant and convincing account of the origins and effects of the corporate imagery so ubiquitous in our world today.

Customer Reviews:

Well documented history of how corporations learned to create images for public consumption.......2006-04-24

This is an interesting work in business and cultural history. Roland Marchand documents the way corporations used (and developed) public relations to develop images of themselves in the public mind. This is really about the early decades and is quite fascinating. We see this today, certainly. For example, when some huge food conglomerate shows you some master chef each portion of the food they want you to buy, you are getting the same kind of treatment. It wouldn't do to show you the huge machines and food production lines that create these food products in vast quantities. No, they want you to think in terms of some impossibly personalized image. (Although recently I saw a television commerical for a breakfast cereal showing the machines making and packaging the food with some of the folks making it talking to the viewer about how great their product is.)

While some may feel the author of the book is more hostile to corporations than is actually appropriate, I think he has done a fine job in presenting us with these historical images and insightful text that supports his thesis. I am certainly pro-business and conservative. However, I in no way want to pretend that corporations are caring and personal entities that have objects other than providing profits for their shareholders at heart. There are a great many philosophical issues that can be discussed about the duties of corporations, and I am willing to engage in those debates, but no one should mistake these entities for families or friends (or monsters or enemies, either). Corporations are artificial creations that we have created to provide goods and services efficiently and thereby returning profits to shareholders. This book documents how they create images that help them accomplish those purposes.

Migration of Industry to South America : Evolution of International Business, 1800-1945 (The Rise of International Business)

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Migration of Industry to South America : Evolution of International Business, 1800-1945 (The Rise of International Business)
D. M. Phelps
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0415190142

The rise of large American corporations, 1889-1919 (American business history)

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The rise of large American corporations, 1889-1919 (American business history)
David G Bunting
Manufacturer: Garland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0824083539

Rise of the American Business Corporation: Harwood Fundamentals of Applied Economics (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics)

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Rise of the American Business Corporation: Harwood Fundamentals of Applied Economics (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics)
R. Tedlow
Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0415269822

The Sun Also Rises Over Toledo : Practical tips for Americans working with or for Japanese companies in the U.S.

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Deep insight, practically based on my own life experiences
More books like this
Must reading for American managers in Japanese companies!
Practical guide for Americans to work for Japanese companies

The Sun Also Rises Over Toledo : Practical tips for Americans working with or for Japanese companies in the U.S.
Sadaharu Honda
Manufacturer: Honda Hershey Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Motivational | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0966412109

Book Description

The Sun also Rises over Toledo is a first guidebook featuring practical communication strategies, inspiring case studies, and facts gathered from years of research on Japanese companies in the U.S. The Sun also Rises over Toledo offers: * A practical guide to successfully working with Japanese companies in the U.S. * An explanation of the fundamental thought processes of Japanese management. * Help for American executives and managers trying to understand the ABCs of prevailing Japanese management philosophy & techniques. * An analysis of the American employees' lack of motivation. * Steps to take to develop strong and cooperative working relationships with between American and Japanese coworkers. This book can assist American executives and managers to overcome or avoid frustrations by providing invaluable insights into Japanese business practices and a thorough understanding of the Japanese company's work environment.

Customer Reviews:

Deep insight, practically based on my own life experiences.......2002-04-24

As an American who has worked two years in Japan and four years in the US for Japanese automotive startups (and married to a beautiful Japanese woman for six years), I was able to relate to this book on a level that a majority of readers cannot comprehend. I was fortunate to have a Japanese President who took me under his wing early in my career and taught me the lessons of "ho-ren-so" and the like. However, working for the Japanese is a challenge still. As an American, reading through the first few chapters of Mr. Honda's book, I found myself becoming somewhat angry at the accusations and arrogance of the Japanese thinking being explained. After stepping back I realized the author was just providing information to help better explain ideas presented in later chapters and his overall point. This book is not so much "Americans are bad or lazy" and "Japanese are superior," it is more or less food for thought. Japanese or American, working with people requires understanding of one another. Often, the most difficult aspect is getting both sides to acknowledge and accept the good points of one another and adopt them to create true synergy. As for the coward from Pottstown, PA, who doesn't even have the courage to give an e-mail address. He totally misunderstood this book (that is if he read it at all). If Americans are so lazy, then why does the world economy depend so heavily on us? Why do Japanese companies continue to invest billions in new US ventures every year? If it were not for us lazy Americans, ignorant fools such as this coward from Pottstown, PA would not have world dominating companies such as Boeing to work for. One more point for the Japanese to understand. A reporter once asked a former football coach of Notre Dame, "Coach, how do you motivate your players?" The coach responded, "I don't motivate them. They come motivated. I try not to de-motivate them." As pointed out in Mr. Honda's book, Americans enter into Japanese companies with childish optimism and enthusiasm. All to quickly is that enthusiasm shattered and the American becomes just another body punching the clock or "lazy". Until Japanese executives (and many American companies) understand this and learn how to harness this energy, they will never understand the true work ethic of the American worker. If going home to spend time with your wife, children, community volunteer organization, church, or night school at the end of an eight hour workday instead of sitting at your desk looking busy but you really don't have anything to do or as the Japanese at two companies I have worked for, sitting in the smoking area for hours at the end of the day just to get face time, if not wasting my precious time like this is considered lazy, then I am guilty. Ask any Japanese Executive on his deathbed if he has any regrets in life. I do not believe his answer would be, "I wish I had spent more time at work." Thank you Mr. Honda.

More books like this.......2000-04-17

It's good to have books of this sort. It's about time someone instill some sort of work ethic in the Americans. Americans are often dismissed as lazy and unambitious, self-centered, which is not far from the truth. I know, I used to work for Boeing Company in America. This should be required reading for people in American auto industry so they make better car,LOL!

Must reading for American managers in Japanese companies!.......1999-04-23

Mr. Honda takes the mystery out for American managers who want to know what to say and do in order to be successful in Japanese companies. He provides numerous examples and comparisons between the American and Japanese styles of management along with recommendations. A special emphasis on diversity-communications is provided from cover to cover to guide the reader on the perceptions and expectations American and Japanese managers have of each other, and how to improve their working relationship. In summary, Mr. Honda's book is long overdue for American managers who are looking for practical tips and guidelines to have a successful career in Japanese companies.

Practical guide for Americans to work for Japanese companies.......1998-10-02

Having managed a Japanese invested company in the USA for 8 years, I was exposed to the strengths and weaknesses of the philosophy of operation, style and processes. It caused me to rethink the validity of the mostly unspoken and unexplained management approaches that cause much frustrations and inefficiencies to American workers. Back in the introductory period of American Karate in 1962, I learned, as an instructor, to explain the reasons behind Karate practice and thought processes, rather than leaving the art vague and mysterious. Americans would do well when all the chips and stones are turned and have clear objectives and rewards for the effort. I decided to write, perhaps for the first time by a Japanese executive, a plainly explained managment book on the system of Japanese companies in the USA. No theories but all practical questions and experiences Americans will be exposed in working for or with Japanese companies. Answers to the questons and different experiences are clearly written to assist Americans to succeed in managing a Japanese company which has been expected but being realized so slowly. EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINABLE AND CAN BE LEARNT!

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