Capitalizing on Change: A Social History of American Business / Edition 1

by Stanley Buder

Overview

Americans love "this year's model," relying on the "new" to be always "improved." Enthusiasm for the new, says Stanley Buder, is essential to American business, where innovation and change stoke the engines of economic energy. To really understand the history of business in America, he argues, we must understand the intertwining dynamics of social and business values.

In a history spanning over three hundred years, Buder examines the enveloping expansion of the market economy, the laggardly use of government to modify or control market forces, the rise of consumerism, the shifting role of small business, and much more. He concludes with the explosive development of business in the 1990s and its aftermath of crises and scandals. Along the way, he analyzes the ways American social values foster an entrepreneurial ethos and why the identification of change with progress provides a distinctive and provocative theme in American life.

Buder studies American business as not only an engine of wealth accumulation but also an important generator and reflector of American values. Capitalizing on Change is the first full-length business history in recent years to make this relationship clear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807832318
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	03/01/2009
Series:	The Luther H. Hodges Jr. and Luther H. Hodges Sr. Series on Business, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy
Edition description:	1
Pages:	556
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Stanley Buder is professor emeritus of history at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is author of Pullman: An Experiment in Industrial Order and Community Planning and Visionaries and Planners: The Garden City Movement and the Modern Community.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I. Foundations of a Modern Economy
1. Early Capitalism and the Rise of a Market Economy
2. North America's Colonial Economy
3. The Early National Economy, 1776-1820
4. Antebellum America, 1820-1860
5. The Unstoppable Engine
6. Entrepreneurial Leaves from the Gilded Age
7. A Changing Workplace and Society

Part II. From Theodore Roosevelt to Reagan
8. Washington Comes Forward, 1900-1912
9. The Age of Organization
10. The Consumer Decade
11. Hard Times, 1933-1945
12. The American (Quarter) Century, 1945-1973

Part III. The Turn of the Millennium
13. Coping with Decline, 1974-1980
14. Restructuring and Rebirth, 1980s
15. The New Economy, the Burst Bubble, and an Economy in Trouble, 1990-2008
16. The Rise of a Global Economy
17. Thinking Small
18. The Twenty-first Century

Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This sweeping survey from colonial times to the summer of 2008 rejuvenates the theme of U.S. exceptionalism with a decisive and persuasive analysis. What made the nation so globally distinctive was a deep-seated entrepreneurial culture. Stanley Buder champions the individuals who drove the business system forward, from Ben Franklin to Bill Gates.—Edwin J. Perkins, University of Southern California, author of Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors

Editorial Reviews

Makes a good case that understanding business history is essential to understanding American history. . . . Recommended.—Choice



A sweeping synthesis of American business history. . . . Deserves to be widely read and discussed, particularly at this moment in our history.—Enterprise & Society



Synthesizes an extensive array of secondary sources into a judicious, accessibly written survey of American business. . . . Provid[es] a wealth of information and insight and giving readers a fine overview of the broad sweep of American business history.—Journal of American History



Do you love history? Do you enjoy business analysis? How about reflecting on social mores? Throw in a healthy dash of political drama and you've created the multiple layers of Capitalizing on Change. . . . Buder makes the intertwining dynamics of our 300 years of history so very readable.—Better Investing

From the Publisher