Business history: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Richard Jensen
mNo edit summary
 
(10 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{subpages}}
{{subpages}}
'''Business history''' is the branch of [[economic history]] that deals with the history of business organizations, methods, government regulation, labor relations, and impact on society.  It also includes biographies of individual companies and entrepreneurs.
'''Business history''' is the branch of [[Economic history|economic history]] that deals with the history of business organizations, methods, entrepreneurship, leadership, corporate organization, government regulation, labor relations, and impact on society.  It also includes biographies of individual companies and entrepreneurs.


==Historiography==
==Historiography==
Business history was founded by Professor N. S. B. Gras, at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, starting in 1927. He defined the field's subject matter and approach, wrote the first general treatise in the field, and helped Harvard build a tradition of scholarship as well as the leading library in the field. itioners, and to give it status in the academic world. He edited a series of monographs, the Harvard Studies in Business History. He also served as editor of the Bulletin of the Business Historical Society (1926- 1953), a journal which later became the ''Business History Review'' (1954-date).   
Business history was founded by Professor [[N. S. B. Gras]], at the [[Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration]], starting in 1927. He defined the field's subject matter and approach, wrote the first general treatise in the field, and helped Harvard build a tradition of scholarship as well as the leading library in the field (the [http://www.library.hbs.edu/ Baker Library]). He edited a series of monographs, the [[Harvard Studies in Business History]]. He also served as editor of the [[Bulletin of the Business Historical Society]] (1926-1953), a journal which later became the ''[[Business History Review]]'' (1954-present).   


===American===
Business history in the U.S. in the 1960s differed from earlier decades in the sheer volume of monographs produced and in the variety of methodologies used. Scholars were also more interested in developing abstract or theoretical explanations of the growth of business enterprise, the study of strategy and structure by [[Alfred D. Chandler Jr.]] being a prime example. The relationship between business and the federal government became a focal point of study. On the whole, the 1960s affirmed the conclusions of the earlier decades regarding the close interrelationship between government and business enterprise.


[[Naomi R. Lamoreaux]] et al (2003) offered a new synthesis of American business history during the 19th-20th centuries.  Moving beyond the markets-versus-hierarchies framework that underlies the previously dominant interpretation of Alfred D. Chandler Jr., the authors highlight the great variety of coordination mechanisms in the economy at any given time.  Drawing on late-20th-century theoretical work in economics, they show how the relative advantages and disadvantages of these different mechanisms have shifted in complex and often unpredictable ways.  One advantage of this perspective is that it avoids the teleology and determinism that has characterized so much writing in the field.  As a result, the authors can situate the "New Economy" of the late 20th century in broad historical context without succumbing to the temptation to view it as a climactic stage in the process of economic development. They thus provide a particularly persuasive example of the importance of business history to the understanding of national and international history.<ref> [[Naomi R. Lamoreaux]] et al, "Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History." ''American Historical Review'' 2003 108(2): 404-433. </ref>
 
===France===
American historians working in French business history discovered that most of the business enterprises in France were family-owned, small in scale, and managed conservatively. By contrast, French business historians emphasized the success of national economic planning since the end of World War II and tried to make it clear that the economic development in this period stemmed from various phenomena of the late 19th century: the corporation system, the joint-stock deposit and investment banks, and the technological innovations in the steel industry. To clarify the contributions of 19th-century entrepreneurs to the economic development in France, French scholars support two journals, ''Histoire des Enterprises'' and ''Revue d'Histoire de la Siderurgie.''


==Scholars==
Some of the leading scholars include:
Some of the leading scholars include:
*[[Alfred D. Chandler]]
*[[Alfred D. Chandler Jr.]]


==Bibliography==
===Textbooks and surveys: USA===
* Mansel G. Blackford. ''A History of Small Business in America'' (Twayne's Evolution of Modern Business Series) (ISBN: 0805798242) 1992)
*  Mansel G. Blackford and K. Austin Kerr. ''Business Enterprise in American History'' (ISBN: 0395351553) (1990)
*  Keith L. Bryant. ''A History of American Business'' (1983) (ISBN: 0133892476)
* John Chamberlain. ''Enterprising Americans: A Business History of the United States'' (ISBN: 0060107022) (1974) by popular journalist
*  Thomas Childs Cochran. ''Business in American Life: A History'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100290879 online edition]
*  Arthur H. Cole. ''The American Wool Manufacture'' 2 vol Harvard UP 1926
* Thomas V. Dibacco. ''Made in the U.S.A.: The History of American Business'' (1988) (ISBN: 0060914661)
* Alex Groner. ''The American heritage history of American business & industry,'' (ISBN: 0070011567) (1972), very well illustrated
*  Herman Edward Krooss. ''American Business History''  (ISBN: 0130240834) (1972)
* McCraw, Thomas K. ''American Business, 1920-2000: How It Worked.''2000. 270 pp. ISBN: 0-88295-985-9.
* Glenn Porter. ''The rise of big business, 1860-1910'' (1973)(ISBN: 0690703945)
* Schweikart, Larry. ''The Entrepreneurial Adventure: A History of Business in the United States'' (2000)
*  Juliet E. K. Walker; ''Encyclopedia of African American Business History'' Greenwood Press, 1999  [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101376721 online edition]
* Williamson, Harold F. and Arnold R. Daum. ''The American Petroleum Industry: The Age of Illumination, 1859-1899,'' 1959: vol 2, ''American Petroleum Industry: the Age of Energy 1899-1959,'' 1964. The standard history of the oil industry.


===Textbooks and surveys: World===
==Organizations==
* Volker R. Berghahn; ''Quest for Economic Empire: European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century'' 1996 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8970969 online edition]
*[http://www.thebhc.org/ Business History Conference] which publishes ''[[Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History]]''.
* Mansel G Blackford. ''The Rise of Modern Business in Great Britain, the United States, and Japan'' (1998)
*The Business Historical Society which publishes ''[http://www.hbs.edu/bhr/ The Business Historical Review]''.
*  Youssef Cassis; ''Big Business: The European Experience in the Twentieth Century'' Oxford University Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109999199 online edition]
* Chandler, Alfred D., Jr.  ''Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries.'' (Harvard Studies in Business History, no. 46.)  2005.
* Chandler, Alfred D., Jr.  ''Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism'' (2004)
* Stanley Chapman. ''Merchant Enterprise In Britain'' (2003)
* Carlos Dávila, Rory Miller, and Garry Mills. ''Business History in Latin America: The Experience of Seven Countries'' Liverpool University Press, 1999 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102374595 online edition]
* Robert Gardella, Jane K. Leonard, Andrea McElderry; ''Chinese Business History: Interpretive Trends and Priorities for the Future ''M. E. Sharpe, 1998 [http://www.questia.com/SM.qst?act=adv&contributors=Jane%20K.%20Leonard&dcontributors=Jane+K.+Leonard online edition]
* Edwin S. Hunt and James M. Murray. ''A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550'' 1999
* Geoffrey Jones. ''The Evolution of International Business: An Introduction'' (1995)
* Geoffrey Jones. ''Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' (2000)
* Maurice W. Kirby. ''Business Enterprise in Modern Britain: From the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century'' (1994)
* Henry Cornelius Klassen. ''Business History of Alberta'' 1999
* Mokyr, Joel. ed. ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History'' 4 vol (2003)
* John F. Wilson. ''British Business History, 1720-1994'' (1995)


===Historiography===
* Franco Amatori and Geoffrey Jones, eds. ''Business History Around the World'' (2003)
* Louis Galambos; ''American Business History.'' Service Center for Teachers of History. 1967, historiographical pamphlet. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3086673 online version]
* Gras, N.S.B. and Henrietta M. Larson. ''Casebook in American Business History'' (1939), with short biographies, company histories and outlines of the main issues
* Charles Harvey. ''Business History: concepts and measurement'' (1989)
* Charles Harvey and John Turner. ''Labour and Business in Modern Britain'' 1989
* Lance Klass and Susan Kinnell. ''Corporate America: A Historical Bibliography'' 1984
* McCarthy, Dennis M. ''International Business History: A Contextual and Case Approach'' (1994)
* Andrea Lee McElderry, Jane Kate Leonard, and Robert Gardella. ''Chinese Business History: Interpretive Trends and Priorities for the Future'' (1998)
* Barry Emmanuel Supple. ''Essays in British Business History'' 1977
* Kenneth Arthur Tucker. ''Business History: Selected Readings'' 1977


==Notes==
<References />[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
 
==See also==
 
* [[U.S. Economic History]]
==External Links==
* [http://www.h-net.org/~business/ online H-Business: daily H-Net Discussion Network for researchers]
* [http://www.hbs.edu/bhr/ ''Business History Review'' is online at JSTOR.COM] and has published for 80+ years
* [http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/eanshome.html the journal ''Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History'' seeks original, imaginative research on the historical relations between businesses and their larger political, cultural, institutional, social, and economic contexts.]
* [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/floyd_norris/index.html This Month in Business History. ''New York Times'' video and documents on great events of 20th century US business history]

Latest revision as of 12:00, 22 July 2024

This article is developing and not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

Business history is the branch of economic history that deals with the history of business organizations, methods, entrepreneurship, leadership, corporate organization, government regulation, labor relations, and impact on society. It also includes biographies of individual companies and entrepreneurs.

Historiography

Business history was founded by Professor N. S. B. Gras, at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, starting in 1927. He defined the field's subject matter and approach, wrote the first general treatise in the field, and helped Harvard build a tradition of scholarship as well as the leading library in the field (the Baker Library). He edited a series of monographs, the Harvard Studies in Business History. He also served as editor of the Bulletin of the Business Historical Society (1926-1953), a journal which later became the Business History Review (1954-present).

American

Business history in the U.S. in the 1960s differed from earlier decades in the sheer volume of monographs produced and in the variety of methodologies used. Scholars were also more interested in developing abstract or theoretical explanations of the growth of business enterprise, the study of strategy and structure by Alfred D. Chandler Jr. being a prime example. The relationship between business and the federal government became a focal point of study. On the whole, the 1960s affirmed the conclusions of the earlier decades regarding the close interrelationship between government and business enterprise.

Naomi R. Lamoreaux et al (2003) offered a new synthesis of American business history during the 19th-20th centuries. Moving beyond the markets-versus-hierarchies framework that underlies the previously dominant interpretation of Alfred D. Chandler Jr., the authors highlight the great variety of coordination mechanisms in the economy at any given time. Drawing on late-20th-century theoretical work in economics, they show how the relative advantages and disadvantages of these different mechanisms have shifted in complex and often unpredictable ways. One advantage of this perspective is that it avoids the teleology and determinism that has characterized so much writing in the field. As a result, the authors can situate the "New Economy" of the late 20th century in broad historical context without succumbing to the temptation to view it as a climactic stage in the process of economic development. They thus provide a particularly persuasive example of the importance of business history to the understanding of national and international history.[1]

France

American historians working in French business history discovered that most of the business enterprises in France were family-owned, small in scale, and managed conservatively. By contrast, French business historians emphasized the success of national economic planning since the end of World War II and tried to make it clear that the economic development in this period stemmed from various phenomena of the late 19th century: the corporation system, the joint-stock deposit and investment banks, and the technological innovations in the steel industry. To clarify the contributions of 19th-century entrepreneurs to the economic development in France, French scholars support two journals, Histoire des Enterprises and Revue d'Histoire de la Siderurgie.

Scholars

Some of the leading scholars include:


Organizations


Notes

  1. Naomi R. Lamoreaux et al, "Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History." American Historical Review 2003 108(2): 404-433.