Narrating the Rise of Big Business in the USA: How economists explain standard oil and Wal-Mart

by Anne Mayhew

Overview

"This is a story about stories and specifically about some of the stories that Americans have told themselves about corporate economic power." In this book, Anne Mayhew focuses on the stories surrounding the creation of Standard Oil and Wal-Mart and their founders , John D. Rockefeller and Sam Walton, combining the accounts of economists with the somewhat darker pictures painted by writers of fiction to tease out the overarching narratives associated with American big business.

Mayhew argues that the diverse views about big business and its effects of welfare can be reconciled and better policies derived from a somewhat unlikely combination of ideas from the business world and from those who have dissented from the most widely accepted story told by economists. This book draws on the work of Chandler, Coase and Williamson, as well as Marx and Veblen's discussion of supply chains to address some of the major social and economics problems of the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415775342
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/01/2008
Series:	Routledge International Studies in Business History , #14
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Anne Mayhew is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.

Table of Contents

Contents, Chapter One: Introduction, Chapter Two: The Agreed Upon Stories, Chapter Three: Popular Accounts and Wider Contexts, Chapter Four: Economists, Trusts and Big Business, Chapter Five: Alternative Stories, Chapter Six: Supply Chains and Mà Cà C’à M’, Chapter Seven: Toward Relevance.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a very interesting book. … Despite the cost, libraries would be well advised to acquire this book, which is accessible to the proverbial advanced undergraduate yet has much to offer specialists. Highly recommended." — CHOICE (April 2009, vol. 46); M. Perelman, California State University.

From the Publisher