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| for profit a history of corporations: For Profit William Magnuson, 2023-11-07 An eloquent (Economist) history of how corporate innovation has shaped society, from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism has only grown more intense in recent years. Meanwhile, corporations continue to amass wealth and power at a dizzying rate, recklessly pursuing profit while leaving society to sort out the costs. In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of the corporation didn't have to come to this. Throughout history, he finds, corporations have been purpose-built to benefit the societies that surrounded them. Corporations enabled everything from the construction of ancient Rome's roads and aqueducts to the artistic flourishing of the Renaissance to the rise of the middle class in the twentieth century. By recapturing this original spirit of civic virtue, Magnuson argues, corporations can help craft a society in which all of us--not just shareholders--benefit from the profits of enterprise. |
| for profit a history of corporations: We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights Adam Winkler, 2018-02-27 National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year A PBS “Now Read This” Book Club Selection Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Economist and the Boston Globe A landmark exposé and “deeply engaging legal history” of one of the most successful, yet least known, civil rights movements in American history (Washington Post). In a revelatory work praised as “excellent and timely” (New York Times Book Review, front page), Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight, once again makes sense of our fraught constitutional history in this incisive portrait of how American businesses seized political power, won “equal rights,” and transformed the Constitution to serve big business. Uncovering the deep roots of Citizens United, he repositions that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision as the capstone of a centuries-old battle for corporate personhood. “Tackling a topic that ought to be at the heart of political debate” (Economist), Winkler surveys more than four hundred years of diverse cases—and the contributions of such legendary legal figures as Daniel Webster, Roger Taney, Lewis Powell, and even Thurgood Marshall—to reveal that “the history of corporate rights is replete with ironies” (Wall Street Journal). We the Corporations is an uncompromising work of history to be read for years to come. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Corporation Nation Charles Derber, 2014-09-09 Foreword by Ralph Nader. In Corporation Nation Derber addresses the unchecked power of today's corporations to shape the way we work, earn, buy, sell, and think—the very way we live. Huge, far-reaching mergers are now commonplace, downsizing is rampant, and our lines of communication, news and entertainment media, jobs, and savings are increasingly controlled by a handful of global—and unaccountable—conglomerates. We are, in effect, losing our financial and emotional security, depending more than ever on the whim of these corporations. But it doesn't have to be this way, as this book makes clear. Just as the original Populist movement of the nineteenth century helped dethrone the robber barons, Derber contends that a new, positive populism can help the U.S. workforce regain its self-control. Drawing on core sociological concepts and demonstrating the power of the sociological imagination, he calls for revisions in our corporate system, changes designed to keep corporations healthy while also making them answerable to the people. From rewriting corporate charters to altering consumer habits, Derber offers new aims for businesses and empowering strategies by which we all can make a difference. |
| for profit a history of corporations: American Enterprise Andy Serwer, 2015-05-26 What does it mean to be an American? What are American ideas and values? American Enterprise, the companion book to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, aims to answer these questions about the American experience through an exploration of its economic and commercial history. It argues that by looking at the intersection of capitalism and democracy, we can see where we as a nation have come from and where we might be going in the future. Richly illustrated with images of objects from the museum’s collections, American Enterprise includes a 1794 dollar coin, Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone, a brass cash register from Marshall Fields, Sam Walton’s cap, and many other goods and services that have shaped American culture. Historical and contemporary advertisements are also featured, emphasizing the evolution of the relationship between producers and consumers over time. Interspersed in the historical narrative are essays from today’s industry leaders—including Sheila Bair, Adam Davidson, Bill Ford, Sally Greenberg, Fisk Johnson, Hank Paulson, Richard Trumka, and Pat Woertz—that pose provocative questions about the state of contemporary American business and society. American Enterprise is a multi-faceted survey of the nation’s business heritage and corresponding social effects that is fundamental to an understanding of the lives of the American people, the history of the United States, and the nation’s role in global affairs. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The New Corporation Joel Bakan, 2020-09-22 A deeply informed and unflinching look at the way corporations have slyly rebranded themselves as socially conscious entities ready to tackle society's problems, while CEO compensation soars, income inequality is at all-time highs, and democracy sits in a precarious situation. “A very important book, an arresting study directed to a central issue of the times” (Noam Chomsky), from the author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Over the last decade and a half, business leaders have been calling for a new kind of capitalism. With income inequality soaring, wages stagnating, and a climate crisis escalating, they realized that they had to make social and environmental values the very core of their messaging. The problem is corporations are still, first and foremost, concerned with their bottom line. In lucid and engaging prose, Joel Bakan documents how increasing corporate freedom encroaches on individual liberty and democracy. Through deep research and interviews with both top executives and their sharpest critics, he exposes the inhumanity and destructive force of the current order--profit-driven privatization subverting the public good, governments neglecting duties to protect the environment, the increasing alienation we experience as every aspect of life is economized, and how the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare the unjust fault lines of our corporate-led society. Beyond diagnosing major problems, in The New Corporation Bakan narrates a hopeful path forward. He reveals how citizens around the world are fighting back and making gains in ways that bolster democracy and benefit ordinary citizens rather than the corporate elite. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Run Your Own Corporation Garrett Sutton, 2013-02-28 “I’ve set up my corporation. Now what do I do?” All too often business owners and real estate investors are asking this question. They have formed their protective entity – be it a corporation, LLC or LP – and don’t know what to do next. “Run Your Own Corporation” provides the solution to this very common dilemma. Breaking down the requirements chronologically (ie the first day, first quarter, first year) the book sets forth all the tax and corporate and legal matters new business owners must comply with. Written by Rich Dad’s Advisor Garrett Sutton, Esq., who also authored the companion edition “Start Your Own Corporation”, the book clearly identifies what must be done to properly maintain and operate your corporation entity. From the first day, when employer identification numbers must be obtained in order to open up a bank account, to the fifth year when trademark renewals must be filed, and all the requirements in between, “Run Your Own Corporation” is a unique resource that all business owners and investors must have. Rich Dad/Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki states, “Run Your Own Corporation is the missing link for most entrepreneurs. They’ve set up their entity, but don’t know the next steps. Garrett Sutton’s book provides valuable information needed at the crucial start up phase of operations. It is highly recommended reading.” When “Start Your Own Corporation” is combined with “Run Your Own Corporation” readers have a two book set that offers the complete corporate picture. |
| for profit a history of corporations: When Corporations Rule the World David C. Korten, 1996-01 Addresses the issue of modern corporate power, exposing the harmful effects gobalization is having not only on economics, but also on politics, society and the environment |
| for profit a history of corporations: Enduring Success Christian Stadler, 2011-01-05 Enduring Success addresses a key question in business today: How can companies succeed over time? To learn the source of enduring greatness, author Christian Stadler directed a team of eight researchers in a six-year study of some of Europe's oldest and most stellar companies, targeting nine that have survived for more than 100 years and have significantly outperformed the market over the past fifty years. Readers may wonder, Why European companies? Yet, Europe is the ideal place to seek the key to long-term success; half of the Fortune Global 500 companies that are 100 years old or older can be found in Europe, as can 72 of the 100 oldest family businesses in the world. Fifteen years after Collins and Porras' Built to Last, this new book incorporates fresh insights from management science and provides the first non-US perspective on long-range success. Through Stadler's study, a counterintuitive story emerges: the greatest companies adapt to a constantly changing environment by being intelligently conservative. Enduring Success provides a coherent framework, grounded in five principles and practical concepts, for business leaders who are prepared to learn from the history of some of the world's greatest institutions. Please visit the author's YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/StadlerChristian for more discussion of the book. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Corporation Joel Bakan, 2019-09-03 The inspiration for the film that won the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary, The Corporation contends that the corporation is created by law to function much like a psychopathic personality, whose destructive behavior, if unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin. Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world’s dominant economic institution. Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends that today's corporation is a pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies. In this revolutionary assessment of the history, character, and globalization of the modern business corporation, Bakan backs his premise with the following observations: -The corporation’s legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others. -The corporation’s unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal. -Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization. But Bakan believes change is possible and he outlines a far-reaching program of achievable reforms through legal regulation and democratic control. Featuring in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and cultural critic Noam Chomsky, The Corporation is an extraordinary work that will educate and enlighten students, CEOs, whistle-blowers, power brokers, pawns, pundits, and politicians alike. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Colossus Jack Beatty, 2002-03-05 Big business has been the lever of big change over time in American life, change in economy, society, politics, and the envelope of existence--in work, mores, language, consciousness, and the pace and bite of time. Such is the pattern revealed by this historical mosaic. --From the Preface Weaving historical source material with his own incisive analysis, Jack Beatty traces the rise of the American corporation, from its beginnings in the 17th century through today, illustrating how it has come to loom colossus-like over the economy, society, culture, and politics. Through an imaginative selection of readings made up of historical and contemporary documents, opinion pieces, reportage, biographies, company histories, and scenes from literature, all introduced and explicated by Beatty, Colossus makes a convincing case that it is the American corporation that has been, for good and ill, the primary maker and manager of change in modern America. In this anthology, readers are shown how a developing business civilization has affected domestic life in America, how labor disputes have embodied a struggle between freedom and fraternity, how corporate leaders have faced the recurring dilemma of balancing fiduciary with social responsibility, and how Silicon Valley and Wall Street have come to dwarf Capitol Hill in pervasiveness of influence. From the slave trade and the transcontinental railroad to the software giants and the multimedia conglomerates, Colossus reveals how the corporation emerged as the foundation of representative government in the United States, as the builder of the young nation's public works, as the conqueror of American space, and as the inexhaustible engine of economic growth from the Civil War to today. At the same time, Colossus gives perspective to the century-old debate over the corporation's place in the good society. A saga of freedom and domination, success and failure, creativity and conformity, entrepreneurship and monopoly, high purpose and low practice, Colossus is a major historical achievement. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Caring for Profit Colleen Fuller, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1998 Caring For Profit traces how Canada's $77 billion a year health care industry is turning away from its original mandate of providing the best possible medical care to Canadians, and how multinational capital is forcing its way into our non'profit health care system. In Caring For Profit, Colleen Fuller traces alliances that were struck between private insurers and the medical profession during the 1950s and 1960s to defeat socialized medicine. These alliances survived the establishment of medicare in Canada in 1968, and have been strengthened by new forces emerging in an era of globalization. Instead of a health care system focused on providing the highest quality of care to the greatest number of Canadians, the system is increasingly dominated by financial giants more concerned with consolidations, mergers, acquisitions, and higher profit margins. Caring for Profit is a who's who of key people and corporations making money in Canada's health care sector ? and a portrait of the strategies and alliances that threaten to replace the principles of medicare with the dictates of the stock market. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Lethal But Legal Nicholas Freudenberg, 2014-01-21 Decisions made by the food, tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, gun, and automobile industries have a greater impact on today's health than the decisions of scientists and policymakers. As the collective influence of corporations has grown, governments around the world have stepped back from their responsibility to protect public health by privatizing key services, weakening regulations, and cutting funding for consumer and environmental protection. Today's corporations are increasingly free to make decisions that benefit their bottom line at the expense of public health. Lethal but Legal examines how corporations have impacted -- and plagued -- public health over the last century, first in industrialized countries and now in developing regions. It is both a current history of corporations' antagonism towards health and an analysis of the emerging movements that are challenging these industries' dangerous practices. The reforms outlined here aim to strike a healthier balance between large companies' right to make a profit and governments' responsibility to protect their populations. While other books have addressed parts of this story, Lethal but Legal is the first to connect the dots between unhealthy products, business-dominated politics, and the growing burdens of disease and health care costs. By identifying the common causes of all these problems, then situating them in the context of other health challenges that societies have overcome in the past, this book provides readers with the insights they need to take practical and effective action to restore consumers' right to health. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Corporations Are People Too Kent Greenfield, 2018-10-23 Why we’re better off treating corporations as people under the law—and making them behave like citizens Are corporations people? The U.S. Supreme Court launched a heated debate when it ruled in Citizens United that corporations can claim the same free speech rights as humans. Should corporations be able to claim rights of free speech, religious conscience, and due process? Kent Greenfield provides an answer: Sometimes. With an analysis sure to challenge the assumptions of both progressives and conservatives, Greenfield explores corporations' claims to constitutional rights and the foundational conflicts about their obligations in society. He argues that a blanket opposition to corporate personhood is misguided, since it is consistent with both the purpose of corporations and the Constitution itself that corporations can claim rights at least some of the time. The problem with Citizens United is not that corporations have a right to speak, but for whom they speak. The solution is not to end corporate personhood but to require corporations to act more like citizens. |
| for profit a history of corporations: A History of Socially Responsible Business, c.1600–1950 William A Pettigrew, David Chan Smith, 2017-10-26 This book examines the changing reciprocal relationships between corporations and their various social obligations over the very long term - from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Chapters from emerging and established business historians assess the full range of social obligations that corporations held historically. By adopting an innovative methodological approach that is long-term and comparative, this book offers a challenge to the literature on corporate history and will be of interest to researchers and academics in the field of finance and business history. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Firms of Endearment Rajendra Sisodia, David Wolfe, Jagdish N. Sheth, 2003-01-30 Today’s best companies get it. From Costco® to Commerce Bank, Wegmans to Whole Foods®: they’re becoming the ultimate value creators. They’re generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they’re doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it’s “politically correct”: because it’s the only path to long-term competitive advantage. These are the Firms of Endearment. Companies people love doing business with. Love partnering with. Love working for. Love investing in. Companies for whom “loyalty” isn’t just real: it’s palpable, and driving unbeatable advantages in everything from marketing to recruitment. You need to become one of those companies. This book will show you how. You’ll find specific, practical guidance on transforming every relationship you have: with customers, associates, partners, investors, and society. If you want to be great—truly great—this is your blueprint. We’re entering an Age of Transcendence, as people increasingly search for higher meaning in their lives, not just more possessions. This is transforming the marketplace, the workplace, the very soul of capitalism. Increasingly, today’s most successful companies are bringing love, joy, authenticity, empathy, and soulfulness into their businesses: they are delivering emotional, experiential, and social value–not just profits. Firms of Endearment illuminates this, the most fundamental transformation in capitalism since Adam Smith. It’s not about “corporate social responsibility”: it’s about building companies that can sustain success in a radically new era. It’s about great companies like IDEO and IKEA®, Commerce Bank and Costco®, Wegmans and Whole Foods®: how they earn the powerful loyalty and affection that enables truly breathtaking performance. This book is about gaining “share of heart,” not just share of wallet. It’s about aligning stakeholders’ interests, not just juggling them. It’s about building companies that leave the world a better place. Most of all, it’s about why you must do all this, or risk being left in the dust... and how to get there from wherever you are now. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Gangs of America Ted Nace, 2005-09-11 'Gangs of America' traces the evolution of the corporation, one of the core institutions of the modern world. It ties political debates about multi-national trade agreements, financial scandals and scores of other specific issues into the narrative account. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Corporate Criminal Steve Tombs, David Whyte, 2015-03-27 Drawing upon a wide range of sources of empirical evidence, historical analysis and theoretical argument, this book shows beyond any doubt that the private, profit-making, corporation is a habitual and routine offender. The book dissects the myth that the corporation can be a rational, responsible, 'citizen'. It shows how in its present form, the corporation is permitted, licensed and encouraged to systematically kill, maim and steal for profit. Corporations are constructed through law and politics in ways that impel them to cause harm to people and the environment. In other words, criminality is part of the DNA of the modern corporation. Therefore, the authors argue, the corporation cannot be easily reformed. The only feasible solution to this 'crime' problem is to abolish the legal and political privileges that enable the corporation to act with impunity. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Closely Held Organizations Shawn Bayern, 2014 This casebook covers the law of closely held businesses--those with few owners. Such businesses face special problems when compared, for example, to large, publicly held corporations. The book primarily covers four legal areas, through cases, statutes, and original informational notes and commentary: (1) agency law (covering questions of authority, fiduciary duties, and respondeat superior); (2) partnership law (the Revised Uniform Partnership Act and significant common-law developments); (3) the law of close corporations (basic corporate structure, common-law underpinnings and modern statutes, and protections of minority interests); and (4) the law of limited liability companies (LLCs). The book also introduces some problems in the law of small nonprofit organizations and of hybrid companies, such as the low-profit LLCs that have been authorized by recent statutes. The book is intended for use in modern versions of the Agency and Partnership course, courses on unincorporated or closely held businesses, and the first part of integrated Business Organizations sequences of courses. It adopts a functionalist approach to law and introduces students to economic reasoning in business law without relying exclusively on the methods or ideologies of legal economists. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Benefit Corporation Law and Governance Frederick Alexander, 2017-10-16 Corporations with a Conscience Corporations today are embedded in a system of shareholder primacy. Nonfinancial concerns—like worker well-being, environmental impact, and community health—are secondary to the imperative to maximize share price. Benefit corporation governance reorients corporations so that they work for the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. This is the first authoritative guide to this new form of governance. It is an invaluable guide for legal and financial professionals, as well as interested entrepreneurs and investors who want to understand how purposeful corporate governance can be put into practice. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Political Power of Global Corporations John Mikler, 2018-02-12 We have long been told that corporations rule the world, their interests seemingly taking precedence over states and their citizens. Yet, while states, civil society, and international organizations are well drawn in terms of their institutions, ideologies, and functions, the world's global corporations are often more simply sketched as mechanisms of profit maximization. In this book, John Mikler re-casts global corporations as political actors with complex identities and strategies. Debunking the idea of global corporations as exclusively profit-driven entities, he shows how they seek not only to drive or modify the agendas of states but to govern in their own right. He also explains why we need to re-territorialize global corporations as political actors that reflect and project the political power of the states and regions from which they hail. We know the global corporations' names, we know where they are headquartered, and we know where they invest and operate. Economic processes are increasingly produced by the control they possess, the relationships they have, the leverage they employ, the strategic decisions they make, and the discourses they create to enhance acceptance of their interests. This book represents a call to study how they do so, rather than making assumptions based on theoretical abstractions. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Greed, Inc. Wade Rowland, 2011-10-20 Why is it that multinational drug companies hide or falsify unfavorable results? Why do automakers knowingly sell us unsafe cars? Why is big business allowed to poison our environment—and us? Why is our food so unhealthy, with obesity growing at such an alarming rate? Why are we working such long hours and enjoying life less? This timely and important book places the blame for much of what ails contemporary society squarely on one institution: the modern publicly traded corporation, which enjoys the legal status of an individual but does not seem bound by the same legal and moral responsibilities, or, in fact, by its nature that is brutally and implacably selfish. While recognizing the positive contributions corporations have made over the past two centuries to science, technology, and medicine, Rowland examines the greed at the core of it all and pinpoints what went wrong and how we can free ourselves from the “Greed is good” syndrome. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Better Business Christopher Marquis, 2020-09-13 A compelling look at the B Corp movement and why socially and environmentally responsible companies are vital for everyone’s future Businesses have a big role to play in a capitalist society. They can tip the scales toward the benefit of the few, with toxic side effects for all, or they can guide us toward better, more equitable long-term solutions. Christopher Marquis tells the story of the rise of a new corporate form—the B Corporation. Founded by a group of friends who met at Stanford, these companies undergo a rigorous certification process, overseen by the B Lab, and commit to putting social benefits, the rights of workers, community impact, and environmental stewardship on equal footing with financial shareholders. Informed by over a decade of research and animated by interviews with the movement’s founders and leading figures, Marquis’s book explores the rapid growth of companies choosing to certify as B Corps, both in the United States and internationally, and explains why the future of B Corporations is vital for us all. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Good Profit Charles G. Koch, 2015-10-13 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Learn how to apply the principles of Charles Koch’s revolutionary Market-Based Management® system to generate good profit in your organization, company, and life “This book helps show you the way to good profit—whether you work for an international supermarket chain, a medium-sized regional business, or your own start-up.”—John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO, Whole Foods Market The technological innovations, extreme politics, civil unrest, cyber attacks, demographic shifts, and global pandemic that have affected all businesses since this book was published have only confirmed Charles Koch’s belief that “the only reason a business should exist (and the only way it can legitimately survive long term) is to create value in a responsible way.” Hence, the principles in Good Profit are more important today than ever before. What exactly does Koch Industries, Inc., do and why is it so remarkably profitable? Koch’s name may not be on your home’s plywood, vehicle’s grille, smartphone’s connectors, or baby’s ultra-absorbent diapers but it makes them all. And Koch’s Market-Based Management® (MBM) system is what drives these innovations and many more. The core objective of MBM is to generate good profit. Good profit results from products and services that customers vote for freely with their dollars. It results from a bottom-up culture where employees are empowered to act entrepreneurially to discover customers’ preferences and the best ways to improve their lives. Drawing on six decades of interdisciplinary studies, experimental discovery, and practical implementation across Koch businesses worldwide, Charles Koch walks the reader through the five dimensions of MBM to show how to apply its framework in any business, industry, or organization of any size. Readers will learn how to: • Craft a vision for how to thrive in spite of increasingly rapid disruption and ever-changing consumer values • Select and retain a workforce possessing both virtue and talent • Create an environment of knowledge sharing that prizes respectful challenges from everyone at every level • Award employees with ownership and decision rights based on their comparative advantages and proven contributions, not job title • Motivate all employees to maximize their contributions by structuring incentives so compensation is limited only by the value they create A must-read for any leader, entrepreneur, or student, as well as anyone who wants a more civil, fair, and prosperous society, Good Profit is one of the greatest management books of all time. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder David Webber, 2018-04-02 When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor action failed, a novel approach was more successful. With the aid of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a $300 billion pension fund, workers led a shareholder revolt that unseated three of Burd’s boardroom allies. In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor's Last Best Weapon, David Webber uses cases such as Safeway’s to shine a light on labor’s most potent remaining weapon: its multitrillion-dollar pension funds. Outmaneuvered at the bargaining table and under constant assault in Washington, state houses, and the courts, worker organizations are beginning to exercise muscle through markets. Shareholder activism has been used to divest from anti-labor companies, gun makers, and tobacco; diversify corporate boards; support Occupy Wall Street; force global warming onto the corporate agenda; create jobs; and challenge outlandish CEO pay. Webber argues that workers have found in labor’s capital a potent strategy against their exploiters. He explains the tactic’s surmountable difficulties even as he cautions that corporate interests are already working to deny labor’s access to this powerful and underused tool. The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder is a rare good-news story for American workers, an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Combining legal rigor with inspiring narratives of labor victory, Webber shows how workers can wield their own capital to reclaim their strength. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets Keith Roberts, 2011-06-28 To understand business and its political, cultural, and economic context, it helps to view it historically, yet most business histories look no further back than the nineteenth century. The full sweep of business history actually begins much earlier, with the initial cities of Mesopotamia. In the first book to describe and explain these origins, Roberts depicts the society of ancient traders and consumers, tracing the roots of modern business and underscoring the relationship between early and modern business practice. Roberts's narrative begins before business, which he defines as selling to voluntary buyers at a profit. Before business, he shows, the material conditions and concepts for the pursuit of profit did not exist, even though trade and manufacturing took place. The earliest business, he suggests, arose with the long distance trade of early Mesopotamia, and expanded into retail, manufacturing and finance in these command economies, culminating in the Middle Eastern empires. (Part One) But it was the largely independent rise of business, money, and markets in classical Greece that produced business much as we know it. Alexander the Great's conquests and the societies that his successors created in their kingdoms brought a version of this system to the old Middle Eastern empires, and beyond. (Part Two) At Rome this entrepreneurial market system gained important new features, including business corporations, public contracting, and even shopping malls. The story concludes with the sharp decline of business after the 3rd century CE. (Part Three) In each part, Roberts portrays the major new types of business coming into existence. He weaves these descriptions into a narrative of how the prevailing political, economic, and social culture shaped the nature and importance of business and the status, wealth, and treatment of business people. Throughout, the discussion indicates how much (and how little) business has changed, provides a clear picture of what business actually is, presents a model for understanding the social impact of business as a whole, and yields stimulating insights for public policy today. |
| for profit a history of corporations: VC Tom Nicholas, 2019-07-09 “An incisive history of the venture-capital industry.” —New Yorker “An excellent and original economic history of venture capital.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “A detailed, fact-filled account of America’s most celebrated moneymen.” —New Republic “Extremely interesting, readable, and informative...Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to the present multibillion-dollar venture funds.” —Arthur Rock “In principle, venture capital is where the ordinarily conservative, cynical domain of big money touches dreamy, long-shot enterprise. In practice, it has become the distinguishing big-business engine of our time...[A] first-rate history.” —New Yorker VC tells the riveting story of how the venture capital industry arose from America’s longstanding identification with entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Whether the venture is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the latest Silicon Valley startup, VC is a state of mind as much as a way of doing business, exemplified by an appetite for seeking extreme financial rewards, a tolerance for failure and experimentation, and a faith in the promise of innovation to generate new wealth. Tom Nicholas’s authoritative history takes us on a roller coaster of entrepreneurial successes and setbacks. It describes how iconic firms like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia invested in Genentech and Apple even as it tells the larger story of VC’s birth and evolution, revealing along the way why venture capital is such a quintessentially American institution—one that has proven difficult to recreate elsewhere. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Suiting Themselves Sharon Beder, 2012-06-25 In this brilliantly researched expos 'communications Rottweiler' Sharon Beder blasts open the backrooms and boardrooms to reveal how the international corporate elite dictate global politics for their own benefit. Beder shows how they created business associations andthink tanks in the 1970s to drive public policy, forced the worldwide privatization and deregulation of public services in the 1980s and 1990s (enabling a massive transfer of ownership and control over essential services) and, still not satisfied, have worked relentlessly since the late 1990s to rewrite the very rules of the global economy to funnel wealth and power into their pockets. Want a globalized and homogenized world of conflict, poverty and massive environmental degradation run by a corporate oligarchy that wipes its feet on democracy? Or a democratic world, where poverty is history, companies work for people and clean water is a right, not a privilege you pay for? Beder‘s message is clear - it‘s your world, and it‘s time to fight for it. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Corporations Are Not People Jeffrey D. Clements, 2012-01-09 The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision marked a culminating victory for the bizarre doctrine that corporations are people with free speech and other rights. Now, Americans cannot stop corporations from spending billions of dollars to dominate elections and keep our elected representatives on a tight leash. Jeffrey Clements reveals the far-reaching effects of this strange and destructive idea, which flies in the face of not only all common sense but most of American legal history as well. Most importantly, he offers solutions—including a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United—and tools to help readers join a grassroots drive to implement them. Ending corporate control of our Constitution and government is not about a triumph of one political ideology over another—it’s about restoring the republican principles of American democracy. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Land of Enterprise Benjamin C. Waterhouse, 2017-04-11 This groundbreaking account of the development of American business from the colonial period to the present explains that the history of the United States can best be understood not as a search for freedom—but as a search for wealth and prosperity. The Land of Enterprise charts the development of American business from the colonial period to the present. It explores the nation’s evolving economic, social, and political landscape by examining how different types of enterprising activities rose and fell, how new labor and production technologies supplanted old ones—and at what costs—and how Americans of all stripes responded to the tumultuous world of business. In particular, historian Benjamin Waterhouse highlights the changes in business practices, the development of different industries and sectors, and the complex relationship between business and national politics. From executives and bankers to farmers and sailors, from union leaders to politicians to slaves, business history is American history, and Waterhouse pays tribute to the unnamed millions who traded their labor (sometimes by choice, often not) or decided what products to consume (sometimes informed, often not). Their story includes those who fought against what they saw as an oppressive system of exploitation as well as those who defended free markets from any outside intervention. The Land of Enterprise is not only a comprehensive look into our past achievements, but offers clues as to how to confront the challenges of today’s world: globalization, income inequality, and technological change. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Out of Sight Erik Loomis, 2016-03-01 A provocative analysis of labor, globalization, and environmental harm by the award-winning historian and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes. In the current state of our globalized economy, corporations have no incentive to protect their workers or the environment. Jobs moves seamlessly across national borders while the laws that protect us from rapacious behavior remain bound by them. As a result, labor exploitation and toxic pollution remain standard practice. In Out of Sight, Erik Loomis—a historian of both the labor and environmental movements—follows a narrative that runs from the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City to the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2013. He demonstrates that our modern systems of industrial production are just as dirty and abusive as they were during the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age. The only difference is that the ugly side of manufacturing is now hidden in faraway places where workers are most vulnerable. In this Choice Outstanding Academic Title, Loomis shows that the great environmental victories of twentieth-century America—the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the EPA—were actually union victories. Using this history as a call to action, Out of Sight proposes a path toward regulations that follow corporations wherever they do business, putting the power back in workers’ hands. “The story told here is tragic and important.” —Bill McKibben “Erik Loomis prescribes how activists can take back our country—for workers and those who care about the health of our planet.” —Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) |
| for profit a history of corporations: Wall Street Charles R. Geisst, 2012-09-06 Wall Street is an unending source of legend--and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself--from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant--and an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world. The book traces many themes, like the move of industry and business westward in the early 19th century, the rise of the great Robber Barons, and the growth of industry from the securities market's innovative financing of railroads, major steel companies, and Bell's and Edison's technical innovations. And because The Street has always been a breeding ground for outlandish characters with brazen nerve, no history of the stock market would be complete without a look at the conniving of ruthless wheeler-dealers and lesser known but influential rogues. This updated edition covers the historic, almost apocalyptic events of the 2008 financial crisis and the overarching policy changes of the Obama administration. As Wall Street and America have changed irrevocably after the crisis, Charles R. Geisst offers the definitive chronicle of the relationship between the two, and the challenges and successes it has fostered that have shaped our history. |
| for profit a history of corporations: Ecocide David Whyte, 2020-09-01 We have reached the point of no return. The existential threat of climate change is now a reality. The world has never been more vulnerable. Yet corporations are already planning a life beyond this point. The business models of fossil fuel giants factor in continued profitability in a scenario of a five-degree increase in global temperature. An increase that will kill millions, if not billions. This is the shocking reality laid bare in a new, hard-hitting book by David Whyte. Ecocide makes clear the problem won’t be solved by tinkering around the edges, instead it maps out a plan to end the corporation’s death-watch over us. This book will reveal how the corporation has risen to this position of near impunity, but also what we need to do to fix it. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Profiteers Sally Denton, 2016-03 The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. 'Dad' Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to 'build the world,' from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha, to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe, to mining and energy operations around the globe. Today Bechtel is one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched and empowered by a long history of government contracts and the privatization of public works, made possible by an unprecedented revolving door between its San Francisco headquarters and Washingto |
| for profit a history of corporations: Evangelicals Incorporated Daniel Vaca, 2019-12-03 A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism. |
| for profit a history of corporations: An Illustrated Business History of the United States Richard Vague, 2021 An illustrated business history of the United States from colonial times to the present-- |
| for profit a history of corporations: Life Inc Douglas Rushkoff, 2011-03-31 Douglas Rushkoff was mugged outside his apartment on Christmas Eve, but when he posted a friendly warning on his community website, the responses castigated him for potentially harming the local real-estate market. When did these corporate values overtake civic responsibilites? Rushkoff examines how corporatism has become an intrinsic part of our everyday lives, choices and opinions. He demonstrates how this system created a world where everything can be commodified, where communities have dissolved into consumer groups, where fiction and reality have become fundamentally blurred. And, with this system on the verge of collapse, Rushkoff shows how the simple pleasures that make us human can also point the way to freedom. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Power of And R. Edward Freeman, Bidhan L. Parmar, Kirsten Martin, 2020-06-16 The idea that business is only about the money doesn’t hold true in the twenty-first century, when companies around the world are giving up traditional distinctions in order to succeed. Yet our expectations for businesses remain under the sway of an outdated worldview that emphasizes profits for shareholders above all else. The Power of And offers a new narrative about the nature of business, revealing the focus on responsibility and ethics that unites today’s most influential ideas and companies. R. Edward Freeman, Kirsten E. Martin, and Bidhan L. Parmar detail an emerging business model built on five key concepts: prioritizing purpose as well as profits; creating value for stakeholders as well as shareholders; seeing business as embedded in society as well as markets; recognizing people’s full humanity as well as their economic interests; and integrating business and ethics into a more holistic model. Drawing on examples across companies, industries, and countries, they show that these values support persevering in hard times and prospering over the long term. Real-world success stories disprove the conventional wisdom that there are unavoidable trade-offs between acting ethically and succeeding financially. The Power of And presents a conceptual revolution about what it means for business to be responsible, providing a new story for us to tell in order to help all kinds of companies thrive. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Hidden History of American Healthcare Thom Hartmann, 2021-09-07 Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality. For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people—one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says Thom Hartmann. Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan's single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States. Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current “sickness for profit” system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare. There is a simple solution: Medicare for all. Hartmann outlines the extraordinary benefits this system would provide the American people and economy and the steps we need to take to make it a reality. It's time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The 360° Corporation Sarah Kaplan, 2019-09-03 Companies are increasingly facing intense pressures to address stakeholder demands from every direction: consumers want socially responsible products; employees want meaningful work; investors now screen on environmental, social, and governance criteria; clicktivists create social media storms over company missteps. CEOs now realize that their companies must be social as well as commercial actors, but stakeholder pressures often create trade-offs with demands to deliver financial performance to shareholders. How can companies respond while avoiding simple greenwashing or pinkwashing? This book lays out a roadmap for organizational leaders who have hit the limits of the supposed win-win of shared value to explore how companies can cope with real trade-offs, innovating around them or even thriving within them. Suggesting that the shared-value mindset may actually get in the way of progress, bestselling author Sarah Kaplan shows in The 360° Corporation how trade-offs, rather than being confusing or problematic, can actually be the source of organizational resilience and transformation. |
| for profit a history of corporations: The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c. 1550-1750 , 2018-12-10 William A. Pettigrew and David Veevers put forward a new interpretation of the role Europe’s overseas corporations played in early modern global history, recasting them from vehicles of national expansion to significant forces of global integration. Across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific, corporations provided a truly global framework for facilitating the circulation, movement and exchange between and amongst European and non-European communities, bringing them directly into dialogue often for the first time. Usually understood as imperial or colonial commercial enterprises, The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History reveals the unique global sociology of overseas corporations to provide a new global history in which non-Europeans emerged as key stakeholders in European overseas enterprises in the early modern world. Contributors include: Michael D. Bennett, Aske Laursen Brock, Liam D. Haydon, Lisa Hellman, Leonard Hodges, Emily Mann, Simon Mills, Chris Nierstrasz, Edgar Pereira, Edmond Smith, Haig Smith, and Anna Winterbottom. |
For Profit A History Of Corporations (book)
This post dives deep into the history of for-profit corporations, exploring their evolution from modest trading partnerships to the multinational behemoths we know today.
For Profit A History Of Corporations (Download Only)
For Profit A History Of Corporations: For Profit William Magnuson,2022-11-08 A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy …
The historical role of the corporation in society - British Academy
The history of the corporation puts in clearer perspective the current criticisms against publicly traded, multinational behemoths, seen to be exploiting regulatory arbitrage and driven by short …
For Profit A History Of Corporations [PDF] - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
For Profit A History Of Corporations: For Profit William Magnuson,2022-11-08 A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy …
For Profit - اینجا پلاس
this book tells the history of corporations and the people behind them, from the stockholders who fund them to the executives who manage them to the employees who keep them running.
For Profit A History Of Corporations (2024) - archive.ncarb.org
For Profit A History Of Corporations: For Profit William Magnuson,2022-11-08 A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy …
For Profit A History Of Corporations (2024) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
For Profit A History Of Corporations is a crucial topic that must be grasped by everyone, ranging from students and scholars to the general public. This book will furnish comprehensive and in-
For Profit A History Of Corporations (Download Only)
We provide copy of For Profit A History Of Corporations in digital format, so the resources that you find are reliable. There are also many Ebooks of related with For Profit A History Of …
For Profit A History Of Corporations (Download Only)
Enter the realm of "For Profit A History Of Corporations," a mesmerizing literary masterpiece penned with a distinguished author, guiding readers on a profound journey to unravel the …
A brief history of the evolution of corporate power
CORPORATIONS BEGIN THEIR EMANCIPATION FROM THE STATE. One of the first steps in the liberation of corporations from state control was the 1819 Dartmouth decision, where the …
70 Years of US Corporate Profits - The University of Chicago Booth ...
1 Introduction. Financial profit is ostensibly the goal of almost all business activity. It is the incentive to create new ideas, firms, and products. Distinguishing between capital income and …
Accounting for Profit and the History of Capital
Focused on the United States, this article narrates a history of profit from the dissemination of early modern double-entry bookkeeping prac- tices to the mark-to-market criteria of …
The Revolutionary Origins of the American Corporation - JSTOR
Studies of the early history of American corporations have usually focused on business corporations, but this emphasis distorts the course of corporate history by suggesting that it …
Multinational Corporations and Their Effects on Nigerian Economy
The history of multinational corporations in developing multinational countries is marked by its origins in policies of imperialism and Colonialism. Nigeria as a developing country has played …
For Profit A History Of Corporations (2024) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
What is a For Profit A History Of Corporations PDF? A PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format developed by Adobe that preserves the layout and formatting of a document, …
For Profit A History Of Corporations (PDF) - www1.goramblers
corporations from spending billions of dollars to dominate elections and keep our elected representatives on a tight leash. Jeffrey Clements reveals the far-reaching effects of this …
History of the Development of the Law of Corporations
that corporations could and did exist without one, as a matter of history, they did for several centuries before any franchises were granted. In reality, it was this: when they wished to …
On Scale and Scope and the history of the non-profit sector in the ...
On Scale and Scope and the history of the non-profit sector in the United Kingdom* Abstract This article argues that Alfred Chandler's analysis of the British firm cannot be transposed to the …
Business Organisations and the History of Corporations
With a view to profit: Stubbs v Lakos (1994) Associate of a law firm promoted to partner, salary remained the same, dismissed two years later, whether he was a partner or employee. If …
Profit Maximization and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case …
The main focus of this paper is to assess whether corporations can be profit maximizing and concurrently pursue socially responsible activities. The dominant issue confronting corporate …
For Profit A History Of Corporations (book)
This post dives deep into the history of for-profit corporations, exploring their evolution from modest trading partnerships to the multinational behemoths we know today.
For Profit A History Of Corporations (Download Only)
For Profit A History Of Corporations: For Profit William Magnuson,2022-11-08 A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy manufacturers to emerging tech giants corporations wield significant power over our lives our
The historical role of the corporation in society - British Academy
The history of the corporation puts in clearer perspective the current criticisms against publicly traded, multinational behemoths, seen to be exploiting regulatory arbitrage and driven by short-term profit targets to the detriment of social, fiscal, and environmental concerns.
For Profit A History Of Corporations [PDF] - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
For Profit A History Of Corporations: For Profit William Magnuson,2022-11-08 A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy manufacturers to emerging tech giants corporations wield significant power over our lives our
For Profit - اینجا پلاس
this book tells the history of corporations and the people behind them, from the stockholders who fund them to the executives who manage them to the employees who keep them running.
For Profit A History Of Corporations (2024) - archive.ncarb.org
For Profit A History Of Corporations: For Profit William Magnuson,2022-11-08 A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy manufacturers to emerging tech giants corporations wield significant power over our lives our
For Profit A History Of Corporations (2024) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
For Profit A History Of Corporations is a crucial topic that must be grasped by everyone, ranging from students and scholars to the general public. This book will furnish comprehensive and in-
For Profit A History Of Corporations (Download Only)
We provide copy of For Profit A History Of Corporations in digital format, so the resources that you find are reliable. There are also many Ebooks of related with For Profit A History Of Corporations.
For Profit A History Of Corporations (Download Only)
Enter the realm of "For Profit A History Of Corporations," a mesmerizing literary masterpiece penned with a distinguished author, guiding readers on a profound journey to unravel the secrets and potential hidden within every word.
A brief history of the evolution of corporate power
CORPORATIONS BEGIN THEIR EMANCIPATION FROM THE STATE. One of the first steps in the liberation of corporations from state control was the 1819 Dartmouth decision, where the Supreme Court had to determine whether Dartmouth was a private institution or subject to the control of the state.
70 Years of US Corporate Profits - The University of Chicago Booth ...
1 Introduction. Financial profit is ostensibly the goal of almost all business activity. It is the incentive to create new ideas, firms, and products. Distinguishing between capital income and profit income is essential for calibrating both. short- and long-term models. In models of economic growth and development, profit features as an incentive.
Accounting for Profit and the History of Capital
Focused on the United States, this article narrates a history of profit from the dissemination of early modern double-entry bookkeeping prac- tices to the mark-to-market criteria of contemporary global capitalism.
The Revolutionary Origins of the American Corporation - JSTOR
Studies of the early history of American corporations have usually focused on business corporations, but this emphasis distorts the course of corporate history by suggesting that it involved little more than capitalist advancement. In fact, about two-thirds of the acts of incorporation passed
Multinational Corporations and Their Effects on Nigerian Economy
The history of multinational corporations in developing multinational countries is marked by its origins in policies of imperialism and Colonialism. Nigeria as a developing country has played host to MNCs long before
For Profit A History Of Corporations (2024) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
What is a For Profit A History Of Corporations PDF? A PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format developed by Adobe that preserves the layout and formatting of a document, regardless of the software, hardware, or operating system
For Profit A History Of Corporations (PDF) - www1.goramblers
corporations from spending billions of dollars to dominate elections and keep our elected representatives on a tight leash. Jeffrey Clements reveals the far-reaching effects of this strange and destructive idea, which flies in the face of not only all common sense but most of American legal history as well. Most
History of the Development of the Law of Corporations
that corporations could and did exist without one, as a matter of history, they did for several centuries before any franchises were granted. In reality, it was this: when they wished to exercise governmental powers they then asked for a franchise. The English lawyers and writers in an attempt to reconcile
On Scale and Scope and the history of the non-profit sector in …
On Scale and Scope and the history of the non-profit sector in the United Kingdom* Abstract This article argues that Alfred Chandler's analysis of the British firm cannot be transposed to the very different context of non-profit organis ations in Britain. …
Business Organisations and the History of Corporations
With a view to profit: Stubbs v Lakos (1994) Associate of a law firm promoted to partner, salary remained the same, dismissed two years later, whether he was a partner or employee. If employee entitled to statutory payments and notices. If partner, wouldn’t have this and would revolve around the agreement. Held he was a partner,
Profit Maximization and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case …
The main focus of this paper is to assess whether corporations can be profit maximizing and concurrently pursue socially responsible activities. The dominant issue confronting corporate management today is the issue of corporate profit
