Robert M. Fogelson. Bourgeois Nightmares: Suburbia, 1870-1930

Bouregois Nightmares is a useful supplement to Robert Fishman'sBourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (1987) andKenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization ofthe United States (1985). It examines the rise and continueduse of restrictive covenants for suburban land development inthe 60 years between 1870 and 1930. Restrictive covenants werenot new in 1870, but they did not become common until the turnof the century The intellectual father, if not the originator     

Naubauer,Robert G. Packaging,the Contemporary Media. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973

Abstract

Additional advertising regulation is being proposed for both tobacco and alcoholic beverage products. The possible outcome of these proposed regulations is examined based on the effect that advertising regulation has had on tobacco consumption in the past.     

Herbert R. Lottman. The Michelin Men: Driving an Empire. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2003. ix + 310 pp. ISBN 1-86064-896-7, $27.50.

Michelin presents a formidable opportunity for business historians.It has been a closely held, largely family-dominated Frenchfirm that developed into a leading multinational. The firm isone of the few survivors from the plethora of nineteenth-centuryrubber and tire manufacturers in Europe and North America. Itsmultinational influence extended substantially after 1970 throughthe success of its radial tires in North America. The firm reinforcedthis advantage by investing     

Thomas Metcalf. Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860-1920

Here is an imperial connection: Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe(with an "e"), 4th Baronet, served as agent of the Governor-Generalof British India at the court of the Mughal Emperor BahadurShah. This was in the years immediately preceding the periodof this book by the nearly eponymous Thomas Metcalf (no "e"),Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Californiaat Berkeley. The similarity of names is a coincidence, but thetwo Toms share a     

Cone,Fairfax M. The Blue Streak. Chicago: Crain Communication, 1976

Abstract

This survey, conducted among 17 of the 25 largest advertising agencies, highlights the reduction of entry-level employment opportunities, for college graduates, when 1974 is compared to 1973. The survey also gives indication of the relative popularity various schools enjoy as preparers of future advertising executives. The author closes with an appeal to the advertising industry concerning the need to increase the number of entry-level opportunities.     

Richard Follett. The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana's Cane World, 1820-1860

Nobody writes books with grand titles like American Slaveryany more, and with good reason. No matter how thick the volume,no single study can adequately depict the dazzling varietiesof unfree labor in North America, even within a single era.Broad statements about unwaged labor practices in one part ofthe country will attract the criticism of specialists of anothersection. Even within a single colony or state, slavery on thecountryside was     

Robert M. Collins. Transforming America: Politics and Culture during the Reagan Years

Robert Collins has written two superb books treating modernAmerican business history—The Business Response to Keynes(1981), and More: The Politics of Growth in Postwar America(2000). In this, his most recent and elegantly written book,he takes on the rather more slippery, amorphous cultural historyof the period. He even dives undaunted into that most murkyphenomenon, "postmodernism." There, he has some delightful thingsto say about "the therapeutic culture" and the "self-esteem"fad that it produced. In his treatment     

Robert Millward. Private and Public Enterprise in Europe: Energy Telecommunications and Transport, 1830-1990

Bob Millward is the right person to write a comparative volumeon the role of the state and the market in creating, developing,and maintaining network utilities in energy, transport, andcommunications in Europe. He has already done much work coveringa variety of aspects of this topic, and he understands the industriesand the political issues involved. This volume is halfway between a research monograph and a textbook.Though based largely on secondary sources, it is     

Robert B. Ekelund Jr., Robert F. Hebert, and Robert D. Tollison. The Marketplace of Christianity

Was the Protestant Reformation "a successful penetration ofa religious market dominated by a monopoly firm" (Roman Catholicism),resulting in "product differentiation" and a multitude of innovativeconsumer choices (Protestant denominations)? Did Christianityevolve "to satisfy the changing demands of consumers/worshippers"(viii)? Anticipating that many might wince at such a worldly,even profane exposition, the authors endeavor throughout mostof the book (save for the problematic final chapter) to avoidvalue judgments about the faith via reasoned economics. Thisbook builds     

Rogers,Everett M., and Rekha Agarwala-Rogers. Communication in Organizations. New York: The Free Press, 1976

Abstract

A review of past research on the persuasive effects of source expertise and source similarity reveals inconsistent results. In an effort to provide more direction for advertisers and other communicators, insight into source effects was sought through examining the relationship between source expertise and source similarity. Results revealed that there is no underlying relationship between expertise and similarity. The presence of one source characteristic does not impact the other source characteristic. As a result, the advertiser's decision relating to what type of communication source to use remains an important one. In view of these findings and past research, future research directions are identified.     

Tom Downey. Planting a Capitalist South: Masters, Merchants, and Manufacturers in the Southern Interior, 1790-1860. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. xiii + 262 pp. ISBN 0-8071-3107-5, $49.95.

South Carolina’s Edgefield and Barnwell districts arenot new terrain for historical investigation, having alreadyconstituted the object of fine studies. Yet, Tom Downey’sbook definitely signals the achievement of the transition towardnew ways of writing southern history. The very word "transition" becomes central to Downey’sreading of the history of Edgefield and Barnwell as he distanceshimself from the interpretive framework into which the termsof the debate on the capitalist/non-capitalist nature of the     

Multiples of Six: The Six Companies and West Coast Industrialization, 1930-1945

In this article I explore the protean organizational forms usedby the Kaiser and Bechtel construction companies between 1930and 1950. Kaiser and Bechtel prospered during the Depressionand World War II because, as members of the Six Companies consortiumof construction firms, they refused to adopt a "best practice"model of corporate organization drawn from the diversified manufacturingand distribution sectors. Instead, Kaiser and Bechtel used avariety of organizational forms to win numerous government contractsfor public works and defense production, transforming themselvesfrom small regional firms into substantial national and globalcorporations. I contribute to modern academic debate over thehistorical forms of business enterprise and the conjunctionof state consumption and private production.     

Isaak,Robert. Green Logic: Ecopreneurship,Theory and Ethics

Teaching Business Ethics -     

Interview with Robert A. Lindsay,Vice President,Public Affairs and Communication for Coca-Cola Africa Group,United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The paper empirically investigates the extent to which environmental factors affect the intermediation performance of the financial superstructure in Nigeria. A number of intermediation-environmental models were constructed and estimated against annual Nigerian data from 1970 to 2000. Among the various environments of financial intermediation, the socio-political environment, the regulatory environment, and the eco-financial environment exert very great influences on the operations of the financial superstructure. This is based on the evidence from the results, which revealed the socio-political index, regulatory index, and foreign exchange market variables as the most critical predictors of the financial intermediation-output-related index. Other factors such as inflation, taxation, financial market imperfection, and the growth rate of the economy appear not to exert statistically significant effects on the intermediation operations of the financial superstructure. Generally, the utility of the specified models was satisfied as indicated by the results of the global statistics.     

Victoria de Grazia. Irresistible Empire: America's Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. 586 pp. ISBN 0-674-01672-6, $29.95 (cloth).

There is no doubt that the twentieth century is America’scentury, but the terms of that conquest and dominance are lesscertain and apparent. Of course, military force has much todo with the creation of this hegemony, despite periodic boutsof isolationism. But even in these moments of vaunted withdrawalfrom the political and military systems of the world, thereis nothing to suggest a withdrawal in an economic sense. Indeed,during the isolationist 1920s, as de Grazia describes it, theUnited States was having