The Exchange

On May 25, 2012, the Scandinavian Society of Economic and Social History celebrated the 60th anniversary of its international journal, Scandinavian Economic History Review , with a conference on "The Future of Economic, Social and Business History."      The editors of the journal invited three distinguished scholars in the fields of economic history, business history and social history: Stephen Broadberry (London School of Economics), Geoffrey Jones (Harvard Business School), and Marco van Leeuwen (Utrecht University) to present their personal views and ideas about the future of their respective disciplines. The three speakers were asked to publish their talks in the journal.      The article containing the talks is now available (free access) from the journal website: http://www.tandfonline.com/ doi/full/10.1080/03585522. 2012.727766 . The editors, Alfred Reckendrees and Jacob Weisdorf,  hope that the viewpoints expressed in the articl...

Baker Library Historical Collections has mounted a new exhibit, “Building the Foundation: Business Education for Women at Harvard University, 1937–1970.” The exhibition will run until September 22, 2013, at Baker Library, Harvard Business School. Illustrating the evolution of this formative period are photographs, interviews, reports, and correspondence from Baker Library Historical Collections at Harvard Business School and from the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute.     “Building the Foundation” traces the early history of business education for women at Harvard University from the founding of the one-year certificate program at Radcliffe College in 1937 (which HBS Professor Fritz Roethlisberger called “the first daring experiment in ‘practical education’ for women”) to the HBS faculty vote to admit women into the two-year MBA program, and finally to the complete integration of women into HBS campus life by 1970. The ...

The Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Business and Politics in 20th-Century America," to be held on November 8, 2013. As the organizers state, Over the past ten years there has been a surge of new scholarship on the relationship between business and American politics in the twentieth century. Much of this work examines the efforts by business and business people to influence politics, often in response to the growth of the American federal government that began with the Progressive Era and continued with the mid-century New Deal. Many of these finely grained studies draw on, and continue to use, the collections in the Hagley Library. It is fitting, then, to invite scholars working on this topic to come to Hagley to assess the state of knowledge, and discuss new work emerging from research. Papers proposed for the conference should be based on original resea...

The March 2013 issue of Enterprise & Society is now available at the Oxford University Press website. Full text access requires a subscription (included in BHC membership), but abstracts can be viewed freely. The issue contains the following articles (links to abstracts are provided): John A. Alic , "Managing US Defense Acquisition" Francesca Carnevali and Lucy Newton , "Pianos for the People: From Producer to Consumer in Britain, 1851-1914" Kristin Hall , "Selling Sexual Certainty? Advertising Lysol as a Contraceptive in the United States and Canada, 1919–1939" Alfred Reckendrees , "Business as a Means of Foreign Policy or Politics as a Means of Production? The German Government and the Creation of Friedrich Flick’s Upper Silesian Industrial Empire (1921–1935)" David De Vries , "From Porcelain to Plastic: Politics and Business in a Relocated False Teeth Company, 1880s–1950s" Fernando Mendiola Gonzalo , "Forced Labor...

The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH) e.V. invites readers to the second workshop in the Archival Legislation for Finance (ALFF) in Europe program, which will take place on the premises of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation in Athens, Greece, on April 19, 2013. This workshop will elaborate on archival and records management legislation for finance in Europe, focusing this time on the Iberian and southern countries.     Those wishing to present a paper should consult the full call for papers ; abstracts, which should be sent via email to a.campana@bankinghistory.de , are due by March 1, 2013 .      Information about lodging and registration is now available on the workshop website .

The History Project has issued a call for papers for Commerce, Corporations and the Law , a conference to be held September 27-28, 2013, at Princeton University. The organizers welcome proposals for papers from advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and recent Ph.D. recipients "in different disciplines, including economics, economic history, the history of economic thought, legal history, political theory, and the history of science. The conference will be concerned with cross-cultural trade, firms, and legal systems around the world."     The deadline for submissions of proposals is March 1, 2013 . Information on grants in aid of travel and accommodation costs, as well as “a small number of research grants," is here . Please note that proposals are to be submitted on-line, using the form provided at the call for papers site.     Topics for future conferences sponsored by The History Project can be found here .

The Association of Business Historians will hold its second Tony Slaven Doctoral Training Workshop on June 27-28, 2013, immediately preceding the 2013 ABH annual conference at the University of Central Lancashire; participants will also be welcome to attend the conference.    The workshop presents an opportunity for doctoral students to discuss their work with other research students in business history-related disciplines in an informal and supportive environment. Students at any stage of their doctoral career are encouraged to attend. In addition to providing new researchers with an opportunity to discuss their work with other research students in a related discipline, the workshop will also include a session related to career development. Business history doctoral work is spread over a large number of departments and institutions, and by bringing students from throughout the UK together for an annual workshop, we hope to strengthen links between students working on busi...

The Post Office's financial difficulties and proposals have been the subject of recent commentary by business historians who have studied the institution's origins and history: Richard R. John , professor of journalism at Columbia University and recent BHC president, published an essay on the February 8, 2013, Op-Ed pages of The New York Times . Titled "How the Post Office Made America," the article comments on the roles Post Office services have played in American life since the founding of the institution in 1792. John is the author of an award-winning book on the history of the Post Office, Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse and, more recently, of Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications .     Joseph M. Adelman (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 2010 ) and a visiting assistant professor in the History Department at Framingham State University, has also written extensively on the role and status of the Post Office in Ame...

Sunday, February 3, 2013, marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which authorizes Congress to levy a federal income tax. The Amendment states simply, "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." Efforts to enact a federal tax on income began much earlier, however, with the need to finance the Civil War; the Supreme Court had declared an 1894 federal income tax law unconstitutional in 1895. The 16th Amendment had the effect of reversing that decision.    We list here links to some of the more history-based resources and articles generated by the anniversary: The Amendment Form 1040, 1913 Library of Congress , History of the [U.S.] Income Tax U.S. House of Representatives Historical Highlights Our Documents (National Archives) Revenue Act, 1861 Civil War Bu...

The Economic History Society is holding its annual conference at the University of York on April 5-7, 2013. The preliminary program has now been posted on the conference website. Papers will be linked from the program site if they are provided. Much of the program will be of interest to business historians; several sessions are reserved specifically for business history topics: IF: Business History I: Ownership and Control IIIH: Business History II: New and Old Approaches IVB: Business History III: MNEs Details about registration, accommodations, and meals are also available on the conference website .

The Centre for Economic and Business History at the University of Nottingham will hold a two-day workshop on April 18-19, 2013, aimed at postgraduates and early career researchers working in the fields of economic and business history. The theme is "Perspectives on Sources for Economic and Business History." The organizers explain: Researchers in these areas work in a wide range of disciplines and departments such as History, Economics, Geography and Business Schools. They also think on a wide range of themes such as commercial networks, finance, transport, trade, the economy, investment; the list is potentially endless. This workshop is designed to bring researchers in these seemingly disparate areas together in a supportive and friendly environment via the prism of sources. . . . Delegates will be asked to consider certain issues with relation to their own research, thereby encouraging them to be reflective about their sources as well as learning from each other. ...

Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History , which is published for the Business History Conference by Oxford University Press, is looking for a new book review editor to replace Marcelo Bucheli, who will step down in May 2013. The book review editor works closely with the editor of the journal, who is currently Philip Scranton, and serves as a member of the editorial board for the journal. From its foundation, the journal's book review section has been distinguished not only by the quality of its reviews but also by the range of books that it has covered. The ideal candidate for the position will carry on and extend this tradition. S/he will be someone with broad intellectual interests and multiple networks in the field of business history and related fields. S/he will have strong administrative and organizational skills.  It should be noted, however, that much of the administration of the book review process is conducted electronically.  The ...