Business history is a historiographical field which examines the history of firms, business methods, government regulation and the effects of business on society. It also includes biographies of individual firms, executives, and entrepreneurs. It is related to economic history. It is distinct from "company history" which refers to official histories, usually funded by the company itself.
United States
Robber baron debate
Even before academic studies began, Americans were enthralled by the Robber baron debate.Peter d'A. Jones ed. The Robber Barons Revisited (1968) summarizes the debate and provides excerpts from primary and secondary sources.Thomas C. Cochran, "The Legend of the Robber Barons." Explorations in Economic History 1#5 (1949) online .Hal Bridges, "The Robber Baron Concept in American History" Business History Review (1958) 32#1 pp. 1–13 in JSTOR
As the United States industrialized very rapidly after the Civil War, a few hundred prominent men made large fortunes by building and controlling major industries, such as railroads, shipping, steel, mining and banking. Yet the newer who gathered the most attention was railroader Cornelius Vanderbilt. Historian Stephen Frazier argues that probably most Americans admired Vanderbilt; they agreed with biographer William Augustus Croffut who wrote in 1886: It is now known that the desire to own property is the chief difference between the Savage and the enlightened man; that aggregations of money in the hands of individuals are in inestimable blessing to Society, for without them there could be no public improvements or private enterprises, no railroads or steamships, or telegraphs; no cities, the leisure class, no schools, colleges, literature, art – in short, no civilization. The one man to whom the community owes most is the capitalist, that the menu gives, but the man who saves and invests, so that his property reproduces and multiplies itself instead of being consumed. However, Fraser goes on, there was a minority who vehemently dissented: A minority were irate and excoriated the titans of finance and industry as 'robber barons' and worse. E.L. Godkin, founder of The Nation, launched a volley of invective at the new plutocracy: 'kings of the street' like Vanderbilt displayed 'unmitigated and immitigable selfishness' as appalling as their 'audacity, push, unscrupulousness and brazen disregard of others' rights'.Steve Fraser, "The Misunderstood Robber Baron: On Cornelius Vanderbilt: T.J. Stiles's The First Tycoon is a gilded portrait of the robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt", The Nation Nov. 11, 2009
By the Great Depression of the 1930s, Fraser continues: Biographies of Mellon, Carnegie and Rockefeller were often laced with moral censure, warning that 'tories of industry' were a threat to democracy and that parasitism, aristocratic pretension and tyranny have always trailed in the wake of concentrated wealth, whether accumulated dynastically or more impersonally by the faceless corporation. This scholarship, and the cultural persuasion of which it was an expression, drew on a deeply rooted sensibility–partly religious, partly egalitarian and democratic–that stretched back to William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Jackson and Tom Paine.Fraser, "The Misunderstood Robber Baron"
However a counterattack by academic historians began as the Depression ended. Business historian Allan Nevins challenged this view of big businessmen by advocating the "Industrial Statesman" thesis. Nevins, in his John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (2 vols., 1940), took on Josephson. He argued that while Rockefeller may have engaged in some unethical and illegal business practices, this should not overshadow his bringing order to industrial chaos of the day. Gilded Age capitalists, according to Nevins, sought to impose order and stability on competitive business, and that their work made the United States the foremost economy by the 20th century.Allan Nevins, John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (2 vols., 1940). Business journalist Ferdinand Lundberg later criticized Nevins for confusing readers.Ferdinand Lundberg. The Rockefeller Syndrome. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1975. p. 145. By contrast, historian Priscilla Roberts argues that Nevins' studies of inventors and businessmen brought about a reassessment of American industrialization and its leaders. She writes: Nevins argued that economic development in the United States caused relatively little human suffering, while raising the general standard of living and making the United States the great industrial power capable of defeating Germany in both world wars. The great capitalists of that period should, he argued, be viewed, not as 'robber barons', but as men whose economic self-interest had played an essentially positive role in American history, and who had done nothing criminal by the standards of their time.Priscilla M. Roberts, "Nevins, Allan" in
Historians have followed Nevins' lead in writing biographies of the major industrialists of the Gilded Age. These include: David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990) Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (New York: Random House, 2007) George Harvey, Henry Clay Frick: The Man (Washington, D.C.: Beard Books, 2002) David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie (New York: Penguin Press, 2006) T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (New York: Random House, 1999) Though these later biographers did not confer heroic status on their subjects, they used historical and biographical investigations to establish a more complex understanding of the American past, and the history of American economic development in particular.
In 1958 historian Hal Bridges finds that "The most vehement and persistent controversy in business history has been that waged by the critics and defenders of the 'robber baron' concept of the American businessman."Hal Bridges, "The Robber Baron Concept in American History", Business History Review (1958) 32#1 pp. 1–13 in JSTOR In terms of the Robber Baron model, by the end of the 20th-century scholars had mostly discarded it although it remained influential in the popular culture. Richard White, historian of the transcontinental railroads, stated in 2011 he has no use for the concept because it had been killed off by historians Robert H. Wiebe and Alfred Chandler. He notes that "Much of the modern history of corporations is a reaction against the Robber Barons and fictions."Richard White, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America (2011) pp. xxxi, 234, 508.
Academic studies Meanwhile, business history as an academic discipline was founded by Professor N. S. B. Gras at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, starting in 1927. He defined the field's subject matter and approach, wrote the first general treatise in the field, and helped Harvard build a tradition of scholarship as well as the leading library in the field. He edited a series of monographs, the Harvard Studies in Business History. He also served as editor of the Bulletin of the Business Historical Society (1926–1953), a journal which later became the Business History Review (1954-date). N.S.B. Grass and Henrietta M. Larson, Casebook in American business history (1939) defined the field for a generation.See N.S.B. Grass and Henrietta M. Larson, Casebook in American business history (1939)
Business history in the U.S. took off in the 1960s with a high volume of products and innovative methodologies. Scholars worked to develop theoretical explanations of the growth of the business enterprise, the study of strategy and structure by Alfred Chandler being a prime example. The relationship between business and the federal government became a focal point of the study. On the whole, the 1960s affirmed the conclusions of the earlier decades regarding the close interrelationship between government and business enterprise.Richard R. John, "Elaborations, revisions, dissents: Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.'s, the visible Hand after twenty years." Business History Review 71.2 (1997): 151-200. online
Ranking entrepreneurs and management theorists A 2002 survey of 58 business history professors gave the top spot in the history of American business entrepreneurs to Henry Ford, followed by Bill Gates; John D. Rockefeller; Andrew Carnegie, and Thomas Edison. Also included were Sam Walton; J. P. Morgan; Alfred P. Sloan; Walt Disney; Ray Kroc; Thomas J. Watson; Alexander Graham Bell; Eli Whitney; James J. Hill; Jack Welch; Cyrus McCormick; David Packard; Bill Hewlett; Cornelius Vanderbilt; and George Westinghouse.Blaine McCormick, and Burton W. Folsom. "A survey of business historians on America's greatest entrepreneurs." Business History Review 77.4 (2003): 703-716. online
A 1977 survey of management scholars reported the top five pioneers in management ideas were: Frederick Winslow Taylor; Chester Barnard; Frank Bunker Gilbreth; Elton Mayo; and Lillian Moller Gilbreth.Joyce Thompson Heames, and Jacob W. Breland. "Management pioneer contributors: 30-year review." Journal of Management History 16.4 (2010): 427-436. online. An emphasis on expertise can be seen as defining an era of management work, shown in the works of Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Mary Parker Follett, Max Weber, Chris Argyris, and Peter Drucker. Drucker introduced the term "knowledge work" in 1959 and has been described as "the founder of modern management".
Chandler After 1960 the most influential scholar was Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (1918-2007) at the Harvard Business School. In a career that spanned over sixty years, Chandler produced numerous groundbreaking monographs, articles, and reviews. Intensely focused on only a few areas of the discipline, Chandler nonetheless succeeded in establishing and developing an entirely new realm of business history.Richard R. John, "Elaborations, Revisions, Dissents: Alfred D. Chandler Jr.'s The Visible Hand after Twenty Years," Business History Review (1997) 7#1 pp 151-200 onlineRichard R. John, "Turner, Beard, Chandler: Progressive Historians." Business History Review 82.02 (2008): 227-240.Pamela Walker Laird, "Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and the Landscape of Marketing History." Journal of Macromarketing 20#2 (2000): 167-173.