American Business History

Great Eagle Wood is an animal republic where eagles provide leadership, ducks the entrepreneurial guile, and beavers the backbone to make things happen. Growth in the wood sees the evolution of a banking system, a stock market, and a wood wide web. But when their habitat comes under attack, the wood's very existence is threatened, and the animals are forced to take desperate measures to ensure their survival.

Broadway’s most esteemed visionaries tell all - how they got started in the business, how they chose projects, how they raise money, why some of their shows were huge hits and others flopped, and much more. From Flo Ziegfeld and David Merrick, from Joseph Papp, from Cameron Mackintosh, from today’s up-and-coming new generation of producers - here are priceless words of wisdom.

During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be 10 times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society.

A sweeping cultural history of two iconic landmarks that reflect the spirit, character, and values of the US—the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty—and the role they play in shaping American culture, US history, and international relations In Empire and Liberty, historian Dr...

"Business law in medieval and early modern India developed within thevoluminous and multifaceted texts called the Dharmashastras. These texts laiddown rules for merchants, traders, guilds, farmers and individuals in terms ofthe complex religious, legal and moral ideal of dharma.This exciting...

“A delightful and entertaining book about one of America’s greatest humorists.”—Seth Meyers This “absorbing, illuminating” (Jon Meacham) biography of the legendary political humorist reveals the life behind his must-read Washington Post columns, featuring never-before-published...

As the coach during professional football’s most storied era, Tom Landry transformed the gridiron from a no-holds-barred battlefield to the highly-technical chess match it is today. With his trademark fedora and stoic facade, he was a man of faith and few words, for twenty-nine years guiding “America’s Team” from laughingstock to well-oiled machine, with an unprecedented twenty consecutive winning seasons and two Super Bowl titles.

Patented in 1917, Piggly Wiggly was by far the most influential self-service store of the early twentieth century. Before 1940 it was the only self-service chain with a national distribution network, but it was neither the first nor the only version. Beyond Piggly Wiggly reveals the importance of Piggly Wiggly in the invention of self-service and goes beyond the history of a single firm to explore the role of small business entrepreneurs who invented the first self-service stores in a grassroots social process.

World War II had a profound impact on American brands. In addition to brands directly aligning their products with the war effort, some brands used the war as a clever way to engender positive perceptions by distributing products to American forces. Other brands actually had their roots in the war.

Molly McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer who used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education.

In 2000, after the Tribune Company acquired Times Mirror Corporation, it comprised the most powerful collection of newspapers in the world. How then did Tribune nosedive into bankruptcy and public scandal? In The Deal from Hell, veteran Tribune and Los Angeles Times editor James O'Shea takes us behind the scenes of the decisions that led to disaster in boardrooms and newsrooms from coast to coast, based on access to key players, court testimony, and sworn depositions.

National Book Award winner and MacArthur Genius Fellow Charles Johnson reflects on the joys of being a grandparent in this warm, inspiring collection of wisdom and life lessons—the ideal gift for any new parent or grandparent An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter...

Un nombre que destaca en este sentido en el mundo del entretenimiento es el de Walt Disney. Puede que no fuera un pionero de la animación o de las películas en sí, pero fue más bien el Shakespeare de su género: tomaba la inspiración de aquí, de allá y de todas partes, y la combinaba para crear algo que es relevante incluso hoy en día. Walt Disney fue un verdadero icono cultural, cuyas ideas y visión revolucionarias eran ejemplares y demasiado avanzadas para la época.

An extraordinary exposé of the industry flooding our world with plastic—and now ramping up to make more than ever “Deeply researched, sharply written, and totally compelling.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the The Sixth Extinction “It is impossible not to compare Beth Gardiner’s...

The Untold Story of Steve Jobs's Wilderness Years—and the Creation of a Legend In 1985, Steve Jobs—the brilliant, volatile founder of Apple Computer—walked out of his company's headquarters, pushed out of the very corporation he had created. What happened next would transform not only his...

“Chilling and convincing, Antidemocratic is a must-read.” —Heather Cox Richardson, author of Democracy Awakening “David Daley has been at the absolute forefront of educating us about the theft of our elections by radical Republicans determined to subvert everyone else’s power to choose...

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY New York Times Critics Wall Street Journal Kirkus Reviews Christian Science Monitor San Francisco Chronicle Finalist for the PEN Jacqueline Bograd Weld Biography Award Shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize The deeply reported story of...

Prominent CNN host and commentator Lou Dobbs unleashes his manifesto on the vanishing American dream. Abridged CDs - 5 CDs, 6...

A "gorgeous" (New York Times) memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its facade - told by the inheritor of their stories. In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to...

Unabridged, 9 hours Read by TBD "America's best governor" (Ross Douthat, The New York Times) offers a plan for limited but effective government, before it's too late...