American Business History

This is the inside story of the US–China trade war, how relations between these superpowers unraveled, darkening prospects for global peace and prosperity, as told by two Wall Street Journal reporters, one based in Washington, D.C., the other in Beijing, who have had more access to the...

Before Civil War greenbacks and a national bank network established a uniform federal currency in the United States, the proliferation of loosely regulated banks saturated the early American republic with upward of 10,000 unique and legal bank notes. In Bank Notes and Shinplasters, Joshua R. Greenberg shows how ordinary Americans accumulated and wielded the financial knowledge required to navigate interpersonal bank note transactions.

“The go-to guy on minimum wage” (Nobel Laureate and New York Times bestselling author Paul Krugman) tackles one of the thorniest social issues of our times—income inequality—from a new vantage point with field-leading economics. How did the labor market stop working for so many in the...

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.

Myers was an American journalist and historian who published a series of highly critical and influential studies on the social costs of wealth accumulation.

A revelatory history of American division through the prism of two ships, whose widespread use to define that division has been lost to memory despite their enduring legacy In the bitterly polarized decades leading up to the American Civil War, it was commonplace to argue that America’s strife...

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.

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lords of Finance, a magnificent and timely reckoning with the first truly global financial calamity and the famous banking family at the center of the whirlwind Over the course of the 1850s and 1860s, during the first era of globalization, the...

A myth-busting glimpse into the inner workings of the Supreme Court, revealing what we get wrong about the “Roberts era,” what the justices' clerks gossip about, and how to fix a court in crisis—from the popular ABC news pundit and top legal podcaster Most people get the Supreme Court all...

You may not realize it, but you helped pay for a $10 million, fourteen-month government “investigation” of the housing collapse. Only your $10 million didn’t buy much, and it certainly didn’t buy truth; any hope of that went out the window on day one. The congressionally appointed...

Help your child understand that they have the power to make others feel seen, included, and loved—with every kind choice they make. What Does It Mean to Be Kind? isn’t just a story, it’s a spark. With simple, powerful moments and vibrant illustrations, this award-winning picture book helps...

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...

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.

The definitive oral history of the 1967 novel for teens, turned blockbuster film turned Tony-winning musical, and commemorated with a newly opened museum. This groundbreaking story has managed to stay gold for nearly sixty years. *Includes interviews with Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas...

The chilling account of America's first serial killers, whose brutal string of murders on the post-Revolutionary frontier reveal the violence at the heart of the young United States No one knew Wiley Harp’s name in 1797 as he stood in line at the Knoxville Courthouse to register the deed for...

A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Following a boyhood in 19th-century Pittsburgh, during which he learned from his Scotch-Irish immigrant father the lessons of self-sufficiency and wealth accumulation, Andrew Mellon overcame painful shyness to become one of America's greatest financiers.

Based on extensive archival research as well as interviews with the movement's key players going back to the 1960s, this acclaimed book is the most comprehensive chronicle yet of one of the most interesting and lucrative culinary trends in the US since World War II. Acitelli weaves the story of the rise of American craft beer into the tales of trends like Slow Food and the rebirth of America's urban areas, and paints an unforgettable portrait of plucky entrepreneurial triumph.

America's greatness comes from people working hard to fulfill their dreams. But today that greatness is being undermined by people using the government to steal other people's dreams (and money). Rather than participate and innovate in the marketplace, generating goods and services that benefit...

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, fired from the very corporation he had created. What happened next would transform not only his...

From award-winning journalist and coauthor of The 15:17 to Paris, an affecting human history of the first self-steering bomb Paveway, the first "smart" bomb, was created to be a more precise and ostensibly humane weapon, reducing civilian casualties. The true impact of the bomb, however, is ever...