Book•
When Wall Street Met Main Street: The Quest for an Investors' Democracy
01 Jun 2011-
TL;DR: In this article, Ott tells the story of how, between the rise of giant industrial corporations and the Crash of 1929, the federal government, corporations, and financial institutions campaigned to universalize investment, with the goal of providing individual investors with a stake in the economy and the nation.
Abstract: The financial crisis that began in 2008 has made Americans keenly aware of the enormous impact Wall Street has on the economic well-being of the nation and its citizenry How did financial markets and institutions--commonly perceived as marginal and elitist at the beginning of the twentieth century--come to be seen as the bedrock of American capitalism? How did stock investment--once considered disreputable and dangerous--first become a mass practice? Julia Ott tells the story of how, between the rise of giant industrial corporations and the Crash of 1929, the federal government, corporations, and financial institutions campaigned to universalize investment, with the goal of providing individual investors with a stake in the economy and the nation As these distributors of stocks and bonds established a broad, national market for financial securities, they debated the distribution of economic power, the proper role of government, and the meaning of citizenship under modern capitalism By 1929, the incidence of stock ownership had risen to engulf one quarter of American households in the looming financial disaster Accordingly, the federal government assumed responsibility for protecting citizen-investors by regulating the financial securities markets By recovering the forgotten history of this initial phase of mass investment and the issues surrounding it, Ott enriches and enlightens contemporary debates over economic reform
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Book•
30 Aug 2012
TL;DR: The Seeds of Corporate Responsibility: 1. Foundations of capitalism and the birth of the corporation (1776-1880) 2. The turbulent rise of the Corporation (1880-1900) 3. The Progressive Era and a new business-government relationship (1900-18) 4. The corporation's case for social responsibility (1918-29) 5. Corporate Responsibility Comes of Age: 6. Corporate legitimacy affirmed (1945-63) 7. A revolution of rising expectations (1963-73) 8. Managing corporate responsibility (1973-81) Part III. Taking
Abstract: About the authors Foreword Preface Introduction: the corporation in the public square Part I. The Seeds of Corporate Responsibility: 1. Foundations of capitalism and the birth of the corporation (1776-1880) 2. The turbulent rise of the corporation (1880-1900) 3. The Progressive Era and a new business-government relationship (1900-18) 4. The corporation's case for social responsibility (1918-29) 5. The corporation and national crisis (1929-45) Part II. Corporate Responsibility Comes of Age: 6. Corporate legitimacy affirmed (1945-63) 7. A revolution of rising expectations (1963-73) 8. Managing corporate responsibility (1973-81) Part III. Taking Account of Corporate Responsibility: 9. Stakeholders and stockholders (1981-9) 10. Corporate responsibility institutionalizes and globalizes (1989-2001) 11. A new social contract for the twenty-first century (2001-11) Conclusion: patterns and prospects Endnotes References List of plates Index.
114 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: Breadbasket after King: A History of Breadbaskets in the Workplace as discussed by the authors The Breadbasket in Chicago (1962-66) and Atlanta (1966-72) were two of the earliest organizations to support civil rights in the workplace.
Abstract: ....................................................................................................................... 4 Declaration ................................................................................................................. 6 Copyright .................................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgement ...................................................................................................... 7 On Operation Breadbasket ..................................................................................... 12 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 12 Operation Breadbasket .............................................................................................. 13 Background ............................................................................................................... 18 Historiographical Issues ............................................................................................. 25 Structure and Methodology ........................................................................................ 42 Conclusion................................................................................................................. 51 Chapter One: Civil Rights in the Workplace ....................................................... 54 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 54 African Americans and Job Discrimination .............................................................. 56 Ascent and Decline of Fair Employment ................................................................... 63 Affirmative Action and Rise of Conservative Business ............................................... 86 Preferential Treatment and Black Power ................................................................. 103 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 108 Chapter Two: Breadbasket in Atlanta (1962-66) .............................................. 112 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 112 Origins of Breadbasket ............................................................................................ 114 Breadbasket Begins ................................................................................................. 139 Breadbasket Grows ................................................................................................. 145 Prophetic Religion .................................................................................................... 163 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 173 Chapter Three: Breadbasket in Chicago (1966-72)........................................... 175 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 175 Origins .................................................................................................................... 176 Beginnings in Chicago.............................................................................................. 187 Controversies ........................................................................................................... 203 Breadbasket after King ............................................................................................ 211 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 228
74 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented a critical survey of ten books from the history of capitalism, a newly emerging subfield of history, and highlighted insights from the field of economic history that would strengthen the work of historians of capitalism.
Abstract: This article presents a critical survey of ten books from the history of capitalism, a newly emerging subfield of history. At their best, the books offer provocative insights and vivid descriptions of some of the darker episodes of our economic past. Yet specious arguments and failures of analytical reasoning sometimes undermine these books' effectiveness as social criticism. I highlight insights from the field of economic history that would strengthen the work of historians of capitalism. I also suggest some opportunities for dialogue, if not collaboration, between the two communities of scholars.
67 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the value of history lies in its ability to provide unique perspectives on management, organizations, and markets, rather than in providing a longitudinal version of social scientific explanations, and that researchers interested in the use of history will need to recognize its distinct epistemic assumptions and its employment of a retrospective point of view to understand organizational behavior and cognition, as well as understand the particular methodological approaches the historical perspective entails.
Abstract: This paper examines the opportunities and challenges presented by the incorporation of history into research on organizations. We argue that the value of history lies in its ability to provide unique perspectives on management, organizations, and markets, rather than in providing a longitudinal version of social scientific explanations. Researchers interested in the use of history will need to recognize its distinct epistemic assumptions and its employment of a retrospective point of view to understand organizational behavior and cognition, as well as understand the particular methodological approaches the historical perspective entails. The paper introduces these issues and examines them against the backdrop of a growing interest in the use of historical evidence and reasoning to study organizations. The paper also introduces the essays contained in the collected volume "Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods" and frames them in relationship to the broad topic of historical methods in organizational research.
62 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present Modern Intellectual History: A History of Intellectual History (2012), with an overview of the major events in the history of modern intellectual history, including:
Abstract: © 2012 by Cambridge University Press, Modern Intellectual History. Available at http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1479244311000588
56 citations
References
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TL;DR: Theda Skocpol et al. as discussed by the authors show that the United States nearly became a unique maternalist welfare state as the federal government and more than 40 states enacted social spending, labour regulations, and health education programmes to assist American mothers and children.
Abstract: It is generally believed that the United States lagged behind the countries of Western Europe in developing modern social policies. But, as Theda Skocpol shows in this historical analysis, the United States actually pioneered generous social spending for many of its elderly, disabled and dependent citizens. During the late 19th century, competitive party politics in American democracy led to the rapid expansion of benefits for Union Civil War veterans and their families. Some Americans hoped to expand veterans' benefits into pensions for all of the needy elderly and social insurance for workingmen and their families. But such hopes went against the logic of political reform in the Progressive era. Generous social spending faded along with the Civil War generation. Instead, the U.S. nearly became a unique maternalist welfare state as the federal government and more than 40 states enacted social spending, labour regulations, and health education programmes to assist American mothers and children. As Skocpol shows, many of these policies were enacted even before American women were granted the right to vote. Banned from electoral politics, they turned their energies to creating huge, nation-spanning federations of women's clubs, which collaborated with reform-minded professional women to spur legislative action across the country. Blending original historical research with political analysis, Skocpol shows how governmental institutions, electoral rules, political parties and earlier public policies combined to determine both the opportunities and the limits within which social policies were devised and changed by reformers and politically active social groups over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
2,288 citations
TL;DR: In the past two decades, the ideology of shareholder value has become entrenched as a principle of corporate governance among companies based in the United States and Britain this article and has become prominent in the corporate governance debates in European nations such as Germany, France and Sweden.
Abstract: Over the past two decades the ideology of shareholder value has become entrenched as a principle of corporate governance among companies based in the United States and Britain. Over the past two or three years, the rhetoric of shareholder value has become prominent in the corporate governance debates in European nations such as Germany, France and Sweden. Within the past year, the arguments for ‘maximizing shareholder value’ have even achieved prominence in Japan. In 1999 the OECD issued a document, The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, that emphasizes that corporations should be run, first and foremost, in the interests of shareholders (OECD, 1999)
1,533 citations
TL;DR: A Consumers' Republic (Cohen 2003) is an overview of the political and social impact of mass consumption on the United States from the 1920s to the present day as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Historians and social scientists analyzing the contemporary world unfortunately have too little contact and hence miss some of the ways that their interests overlap and the research of one field might benefit another. I am, therefore, extremely grateful that the Journal of Consumer Research has invited me to share with its readers an overview of my recent research on the political and social impact of the flourishing of mass consumption on twentieth-century America. What follows is a summary of my major arguments, enough to entice you, I hope, to read A Consumers' Republic (Cohen 2003), in which I elaborate on these themes. Although this essay is by necessity schematic, the book itself is filled with extensive historical evidence and is heavily illustrated with period images. In tracing the growing importance of mass consumption to the American economy, polity, culture, and social landscape from the 1920s to the present, I in many ways establish the historical context for your research into contemporary consumer behavior and markets. I hope you will …
763 citations
Book•
18 Sep 2001
TL;DR: The idea that any criticism of things as they are is elitist can be seen in management literature, where downsizing and ceaseless, chaotic change are celebrated as victories for democracy; in advertising, where an endless array of brands seek to position themselves as symbols of authenticity and rebellion; on Wall street, where the stock market is identified as the domain of the small investor and common man.
Abstract: At no other moment in history have the values of business and the corporation been more nakedly and arrogantly in the ascendant Combining popular intellectual history with a survey of recent business culture, Thomas Frank traces an idea he calls 'market populism' - the notion that markets are, in some transcendent way, identifiable with democracy and the will of the people The idea that any criticism of things as they are is elitist can be seen in management literature, where downsizing and ceaseless, chaotic change are celebrated as victories for democracy; in advertising, where an endless array of brands seek to position themselves as symbols of authenticity and rebellion; on Wall street, where the stock market is identified as the domain of the small investor and common man; and, in the right-wing politics of the 1990s and the popular theories of Tom Peters, Charles Handy and Thomas Friedman "One Market Under God" is Frank's counterattack against the onslaught of market propaganda Mounted with the weapons of common sense, it is lucid and tinged with anger, betrayal and a certain hope for the future
427 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The first book-length social and cultural history of the rise of consumer credit in America is Financing the American Dream as mentioned in this paper, which focuses on the years between 1890 and 1940, when the legal, institutional and moral bases of today's consumer credit were established, and in an epilogue takes the story up to the present.
Abstract: Once there was a golden age of American thrift, when citizens lived sensibly within their means and worked hard to stay out of debt. The growing availability of credit in this century, however, has brought those days to an end--undermining traditional moral virtues such as prudence, diligence, and the delay of gratification while encouraging reckless consumerism. Or so we commonly believe. In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Lendol Calder shows that this conception of the past is in fact a myth.Calder presents the first book-length social and cultural history of the rise of consumer credit in America. He focuses on the years between 1890 and 1940, when the legal, institutional, and moral bases of today's consumer credit were established, and in an epilogue takes the story up to the present. He draws on a wide variety of sources--including personal diaries and letters, government and business records, newspapers, advertisements, movies, and the words of such figures as Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, and P. T. Barnum--to show that debt has always been with us. He vigorously challenges the idea that consumer credit has eroded traditional values. Instead, he argues, monthly payments have imposed strict, externally reinforced disciplines on consumers, making the culture of consumption less a playground for hedonists than an extension of what Max Weber called the "iron cage" of disciplined rationality and hard work.Throughout, Calder keeps in clear view the human face of credit relations. He re-creates the Dickensian world of nineteenth-century pawnbrokers, takes us into the dingy backstairs offices of loan sharks, into small-town shops and New York department stores, and explains who resorted to which types of credit and why. He also traces the evolving moral status of consumer credit, showing how it changed from a widespread but morally dubious practice into an almost universal and generally accepted practice by World War II. Combining clear, rigorous arguments with a colorful, narrative style, Financing the American Dream will attract a wide range of academic and general readers and change how we understand one of the most important and overlooked aspects of American social and economic life.
274 citations