American Business, 1920-2000: How It Worked

Unique for its breadth of coverage and depth of analysis this uncommonly readable book is certain to become a classic. Five of the book's ten chapters provide in-depth analyses of representative companies and the remarkable people who led them. These firms include McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Boeing, General Motors, and Ford-all of which began as entrepreneurial startups and grew to become big businesses. Their success stories are counterbalanced by a detailed dissection of the monumental failure of RCA, long the world leader in consumer electronics but today all but extinct. Interspersed with the company-centered chapters are five brief "overview" one each on women and African Americans in business, and three on vital sectors of American first finance, then chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and, most recently, computers, Silicon Valley, and the Internet. With 35 photographs and a comprehensive bibliographic essay, this compact, enjoyable work will be highly appreciated by anyone interested in how American business powered the twentieth century.