American Business History

While factories across the Midwest shutter their doors, Cleveland-based manufacturer Lincoln Electric has thrived for more than a century. In addition to being profitable and technologically innovative, through good times and bad, the company has fulfilled its unique promise of "guaranteed continuous employment." Workers are viewed as assets—not liabilities.

Two decades into the twenty-first century, the stagnation of living standards has become the defining trend of American life. Life expectancy has declined, economic inequality has soared, and, after some progress, the Black-white wage gap is once again as large as it was in the 1950s. How did this happen in the world’s most powerful country? And what happened to the “American dream”—the promise of a happier, healthier, more prosperous future—which was once such an inextricable part of our national identity?

Discover how African-American professionals can combine their personal strengths with the wisdom of others to plant the seeds of a positive, lasting legacy in the workplace. Randal Pinkett was the first African-American winner on The Apprentice. When he won, he also became the only contestant...

Set in California's lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corporation's 21st-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn Siler brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.

The author of the classic best seller Lincoln on Leadership answers the question: How would President Lincoln handle the pressing crises of our modern world? Abraham Lincoln is recognized as one of history's finest leaders, a great president when the United States was under tremendous strain. But suppose he were alive today. How would Lincoln deal with today's high-pressure issues, from politics to business?

For decades, IBM shaped the way the world did business. IBM products were in every large organization, and IBM corporate culture established a management style that was imitated by companies around the globe. It was “Big Blue”—an icon. And yet over the years, IBM has gone through both failure and success. The company almost went out of business in the early 1990s, then came back strong with new business strategies and an emphasis on artificial intelligence. In this authoritative history, James Cortada tells the story of one of the most influential American companies of the last century.

As enlightening as The Facebook Effect, Elon Musk, and Chaos Monkeys—the compelling, behind-the-scenes story of the creation of one of the most essential applications ever devised, and the rag-tag team that built it and changed how we navigate the world. Never Lost Again chronicles the...

The working cowhand of old was a dusty laborer, but today's rodeo performers can hone their skills before small-town crowds and be stars in urban coliseums.Historian Kristine Fredriksson follows the evolution of rodeo from the range to Buffalo Bill's Wild West to the extravaganzas in modern times.

This is an anecdotal approach to teaching high school students that history and economics are intertwined. The audiobook is designed to give the student a thumbnail sketch of a dozen events of merit in American history intertwined with the basic economic laws.

Things are going badly for the Clan in this new SF novel of the Merchant Princes, the immensely popular series by Charles Stross. Locked in a vicious civil war for control over the kingdom of Niejwein, their army is bottled up inside a fortress under siege in two parallel universes at once. Duke Angbard, the Clan's leader, has been laid low by a stroke: plotters are already conspiring in readiness for the deadly dance to come.

A Harper Perennial Political Classic, The Making of the President 1960 is the groundbreaking national bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the 1960 presidential campaign and the election of John F. Kennedy. The Making of the President: 1960 revolutionized the way modern presidential...

A former CIA analyst draws on his experience combatting jihadi terror movements and the history of totalitarian regimes to show how citizens lose touch with reality. Some of history’s greatest empires have devolved into genocidal lunacy—often with shocking compliance from their own people...

The Target Story will help you understand and adopt the competitive strategies, workplace culture, and daily business practices that enabled the big box store to become the retail giant it is today. In an industry that has seen constant disruption over the last two decades, Target has...

The fascinating true story of how a group of visionary attorneys helped make American business synonymous with big business and Wall Street the center of the financial world.

The remarkable untold story of a network of amateur researchers who debunked the Warren Report, raising questions about JFK's assassination that remain unanswered to this day—a riveting history of obsession, heartbreak, and the myth of the great American century from an Atlantic staff writer...

GOLD MEMBER WINNER — LIVING NOW BOOK AWARD: SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP and eLIT BOOK AWARD: BUSINESS AUDIOBOOK A timely resource for Black professionals on how to rise to the top of their organizations or industries and, just as importantly, to stay there. Black Faces in High Places is the...

In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger-than-life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily-white business world, he married a White woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally he set his White contemporaries' teeth on edge when he wasn't just plain outsmarting them.

America is the ultimate start-up venture – and these are the heroes who made it happen. The history of the United States is, to a remarkable degree, the story of its entrepreneurs, those daring movers and shakers who dreamed big and risked everything to build better lives for themselves, and...

As author Ethan Mordden looks back at Chicago's various moving parts - including the original 1926 play that started it all, a sexy silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, a talkie remake with Ginger Rogers, the musical itself, and at last the movie of the musical - we learn how the American theater serves as a kind of alternative news medium, a town crier warning the public about the racy, devious interior contradictions of American society. Opinionated, witty, and rich in backstage anecdotes, All That Jazz brings the American musical to life in all its artistry and excitement.

""A must read for serious leaders at every level."" —General Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.) The FBI’s former head of counterintelligence reveals the Bureau's field-tested playbook for unlocking individual and organizational excellence, illustrated through dramatic stories from his own storied...