The "Page 99 Test" blog takes its theme from a Ford Madox Ford quotation: "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." An author is asked to look at page 99 of his or her book and comment on how the material reflects the book's overall subject. Several business and economic historians have participated, including most recently Louis Hyman, commenting on Debtor Nation. Others of interest:
Carolyn de la Peña, Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from to Saccharin to SplendaThese samples are from 2010 and 2011; the site has listings beginning in 2007.
Mark Valeri, Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America
Mark W. Geiger, Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865
Richard S. Grossman, Unsettled Account: The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800
Richard Longstreth, The American Department Store Transformed, 1920-1960
James R. Fichter, So Great a Profitt: How the East Indies Trade Transformed Anglo-American Capitalism
Judith Stein, Pivotal Decade: How the United States Trades Factories for Finance in the Seventies
Joel Mokyr, The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850