Mon Jul 3 06:16:33 EDT 2006
Published by EH.NET (July 2006)
David O. Whitten and Bessie E. Whitten, _The Birth of Big Business in
the United States, 1860-1914: Commercial, Extractive and Industrial
Enterprise_. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing, 2005. xvi + 205 pp.
$90 (cloth), ISBN: 0-313-32395-X.
Reviewed for EH.NET by David L. Mason, Department of Social Sciences,
Georgia Perimeter College.
The roughly fifty-year period between the end of the Civil War and
the start of World War I was one of the most dynamic periods in
American economic history, in no small part because of the rise of
big business. _The Birth of Big Business in the United States_, an
introductory work intended for students and the general reader,
chronicles the developments and processes that led to the rise of
large-scale firms in both well-known industries like oil and steel,
as well as in the extractive industries like mining and forestry.
Throughout the concisely written narrative, the authors highlight the
role of government in both encouraging and restraining the expansion
of big business. This work succeeds in placing industrialization in
the broader context of American history, an important consideration
for first-time students of business history.
The book is organized into four major sections, the first of which
sets the stage for the birth of big business. In the first chapter,
the authors outline the effects of the Civil War on business
development. The scale and scope of this conflict forced the
government to assume an unprecedented role in the economy, and this
need to satisfy the demand for goods and services had far reaching
effects on business. Legislation and government incentives spurred
innovations in finance, led to more efficient production methods, and
promoted the increase in farming output. The war also caused existing
industries (like railroads) to grow exponentially, while helping to
establish new industries like oil. As the authors note, the
experience of the Civil War not only helped business "overcome the
hurdles between small-scale and national operations" (p. 17), but was
instrumental in solidifying a relationship between government and
business that would be critical in the growth of big business in the
postwar era.
The first section concludes with a broad and comprehensive discussion
of the changes in communications and transportation before and during
industrialization. The authors cover all the major improvements
(canals, cars, roads, airplanes, postal service, the telegraph and
telephone), and they place a special emphasis on the role of
government in fostering the success of these commercial enterprises.
The chapter also provides sufficient factual details to give the
reader a true understanding of how important these innovations were
to the growth of big business.
The remaining three parts of the book (11 chapters) focus on specific
industries and firms. Of these, the four chapters on retailing and
the extractive industries are the most interesting and set this book
apart, since these industries are often not included in comparable
introductions to business history. The authors place these industries
in a historical perspective and achieve a good balance of broad
overviews with specific factual information. The chapter "The
Commercial Response to a Mass Market" focuses on how urbanization
sparked a revolution in the scale and scope of consumer retailing.
The "Giant Farms" chapter gives an overview of the rice, sugar, corn
and cattle industries, with an emphasis on how government land policy
encouraged the development of the large farming enterprise. The
chapter on forest products details how changes in technology and
transportation after the Civil War transformed an industry dominated
by small family-owned firms into one characterized by
vertically-integrated businesses engaging in professional land
management activities. The section on mining focuses primarily on how
the struggles between coal producers and the railroads "swept
independent mine operators into several large combinations that were
themselves eventually forced to combine" (p. 112). Like the chapter
on farming, the authors emphasize the role of the government in
fostering business growth. Finally, all these chapters include brief
discussions of the major firms in the respective industries and
contain tables and factual details to illustrate the authors' broader
points.
The seven chapters that focus on specific big business firms tend to
be more uneven than the industry overviews. These profiles include
the United Fruit Company, Singer Sewing Machine, American Sugar
Refining Company, American Tobacco Company, Standard Oil, U.S. Steel
and the Meat Packers (Swift, Armour, Morris, and Cudahy), and they
range in length from three to sixteen pages. While each is adequate
for the target audience, more advanced students of business history
would likely only have their appetites whetted.
The goal of _The Birth of Big Business in the United States,
1860-1914_ is to provide the student and general reader a concise yet
comprehensive history of one of the most important periods in
American economic history, and in large measure it succeeds. It
offers a good foundation for understanding why big businesses
appeared after the Civil War, and the role of the government in this
process. As such it serves as a springboard for undergraduates and
general readers who wish to delve deeper into the field of business
history.
David Mason is an instructor at Georgia Perimeter College. His most
recent book is _From Buildings and Loans to Bailouts: A History of
the American Savings and Loan Industry, 1831-1995_ (Cambridge
University Press, 2004).
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