Promotional Information

Traces the economic, cultural, and historical roots of America's modern business enterprise in the years between the Civil War and World War I.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Part I Background chapter 1. American Business in the Civil War chapter 2. Giant Business in Communications and Transportation Part II Giant Commercial Enterprise chapter 3. The Commercial Response to a Mass Market chapter 4. The United Fruit Company chapter5. The Singer Sewing Machine Company Part III Giant Firms to Exploit Natural Resources: Extractive Industries chapter 6. Giant Farms chapter 7. The American Sugar Refining Company chapter 8. The American Tobacco Company chapter 9. The Forest Products Industry chapter 10. Mining Part IV Industrial Giants: The Manufacturing Titans chapter 11. Standard Oil Corporation chapter 12. United States Steel Corporation chapter 13. The Meat Packers Selected Bibliography Index About the Authors

About the Author

David O. Whitten is Professor of Economics at Auburn University. He is the author of A History of Economics and Business at Auburn University (1992) and Andrew Durnford: A Black Sugar Planter in the Antebellum South (1995) co-author, with Douglas Steeples, of Democracy in Desperation: The Depression of 1893 (1998),and editor of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin, 1793-1993 and Essays in Economic and Business History, the journal of the Economic and Business Historical Society. Bessie E. Whitten is editor (with David O. Whitten) of Manufacturing: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (1990), Extractives, Manufacturing, and Services: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (1997), and Infrastructure and Services: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (2000), volumes 1-3 of the Handbook of American Business History,and of Business Library Review International, a journal of refereed articles, book review articles, and book notes (1988-2001).

Reviews

The authors accurately describe this volume as an introductory work that draws together diverse threads of US business history; it provides a straightforward account of the rise of American big business, characterized by increasing efficiency and productivity alongside the growth of monopolistic forces….Readers will enjoy the way the authors, an academician and scholarly editor respectively, put modern business practices into historical context. This book provides a considerable amount of detail while being engaging enough to hold the interest of general readers and undergraduates. Recommended. Public and academic library collections, lower-division undergraduate and up.
*Choice*

[O]ffers a good foundation for understanding why big businesses appeared after the Civil War, and the role of the government in this process. As such it serves as a springboard for undergraduates and general readers who wish to delve deeper into the field of business history.
*EH.NET*