American Business Since 1920: How It Worked
by Thomas K. McCraw (Author), William R. Childs  (Author)

About the Author
Thomas K. McCraw was Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at Harvard Business School and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.
Bill Childs received his undergraduate (BA 1973) and graduate degrees (MA 1976; Ph.D. 1982) from the University of Texas at Austin. After teaching at UT as a graduate student and for two years at the University of Georgia, he joined the faculty of the OSU History Department in 1984. He retired from OSU on June 30th, 2012, and moved back to Austin, where he continues to research and write.
His research encompasses the evolution of political economy and he has focused particularly on the interaction of individuals and institutions with economic, social, political, and cultural forces. His first book, Trucking and the Public Interest (1985), was selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1986-87. His second book, The Texas Railroad Commission: Understanding Regulation in America to the Mid-Twentieth Century (TAMU Press, 2005), revealed the origins of the TRC's power to regulate production of oil. That authority lay in an evolutionary development of transportation and utilities regulation in the U.S. since the mid-19th century. As he has done in most of his work, Professor Childs underscored how economic structures, cultural forces,federalism, and individuals shaped the nature of regulation in Texas and America. By so doing, he has contributed to our understanding of the evolution of American capitalism.

About this book
Tells the story of how America’s biggest companies began, operated, and prospered post-World War I
This book takes the vantage point of people working within companies as they responded to constant change created by consumers and technology. It focuses on the entrepreneur, the firm, and the industry, by showing—from the inside—how businesses operated after 1920, while offering a good deal of Modern American social and cultural history. The case studies and contextual chapters provide an in-depth understanding of the evolution of American management over nearly 100 years.
American Business Since 1920: How It Worked presents historical struggles with decision making and the trend towards relative decentralization through stories of extraordinarily capable entrepreneurs and the organizations they led. It covers: Henry Ford and his competitor Alfred Sloan at General Motors during the 1920s; Neil McElroy at Procter & Gamble in the 1930s; Ferdinand Eberstadt at the government’s Controlled Materials Plan during World War II; David Sarnoff at RCA in the 1950s and 1960s; and Ray Kroc and his McDonald’s franchises in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first; and more. It also delves into such modern success stories as Amazon.com, eBay, and Google.

• Provides deep analysis of some of the most successful companies of the 20th century
• Contains topical chapters covering titans of the 2000s
• Part of Wiley-Blackwell’s highly praised American History Series
  

American Business Since 1920: How It Worked is designed for use in both basic and advanced courses in American history, at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Modern management in the 1920s : GM defeats Ford
• Overview : business welfare capitalism, the financial system, and the Great Depression
• Brand management at Procter & Gamble
• The New Deal and World War II : regulation and mobilization, 1933-1945
• Overview : postwar prosperity and social revolution, 1945-1970s
• Overview : the empowerment of women and minorities in business
• Science and R&D : from TV to biotechnology
• Franchising and McDonald's
• The IT revolution and Silicon Valley : relentless change
• Overview : financialization of capitalism, 1980s to 2000s
• Business and the great recession
  

Series: The American History Series
Length: 408 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 3 edition (February 13, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1119097290
ISBN-13: 978-1119097297