The Exchange

A compilation of some of the recently published and forthcoming books of interest to business and economic historians: Marcelo Bucheli and R. Daniel Wadhwani, eds., Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods (Oxford University Press, January 2014) Adam Clulow, The Company and the Shogun: The Dutch Encounter with Tokugawa Japan (Columbia University Press, December 2013) Katherine C. Epstein, Torpedo: Inventing the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States and Great Britain (Harvard University Press, January 2014) Walter A. Friedman, Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters (Princeton University Press, December 2013) Margaret C. Jacob, The First Knowledge Economy: Human Capital and the European Economy, 1750-1850 (Cambridge University Press, January 2014) David Koistinen, Confronting Decline: The Political Economy of Deindustrialization in Twentieth-Century New England (University Press of Florida, December 2013) Robert MacDouga...

This being Christmas Eve, a few gifts: Christmas from the perspectives of business and economic history: American History through Christmas Cards (Wisconsin Historical Society) Ghosts of Christmases Past (Historians@Work, Marquette University) "Was Dickens's Christmas Carol borrowed from Lowell's Mill Girls? ( Boston Globe ) Dickens and the Construction of Christmas (History Today) "Historians explain how 100-year-old traditions are still a part of seasonal celebration" (CandG News) Christmas Creep and Other Joyous Holiday Traditions (The Historical Society blog) First Christmas in America (in Tallahassee?) (WCTV) Who Decorated the First Christmas Tree? ( Wall Street Journal ) Inside the $1 Billion Christmas Tree Business (Gawker) Festive Facts about the Business of Christmas ( Orlando Business Journal ) "Ten Milestones in Christmas History That Might Surprise You" ( Forbes ) Who Invented Electric Christmas Lights? (Library of C...

The Business History Conference will hold its next annual meeting on March 13-15, 2014,  in Frankfurt, Germany, in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte (GUG). The theme of the meeting is "The Virtues and Vices of Businesses—A Historical Perspective." The meeting web page has now been updated to include the preliminary program and registration information. Those interested in attending are encouraged to consult the website for lodging details and other relevant information.

The Institute for Historical Studies (IHS) at the University of Texas at Austin announces its 2014-2015 theme, "Capital and Commodities." The theme description states: The co-development of financial and ecological crises, the global proliferation of mass consumerism, and ongoing social and military conflicts over access to natural resources suggest the critical importance of historicizing the study of capital and commodities. . . . the Institute encourages analytical approaches that underscore the sociocultural, political, environmental and intellectual underpinnings of the history of capital and commodities. We especially welcome proposals that encompass broad timespans (including the medieval and early modern periods) and that reach across geographic areas and disciplinary boundaries.   The full description is available at: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/ insts/historicalstudies/news/ 7106 . The IHS invites applications for resident fellows at all ranks; the deadline ...

The Economic History Society will hold its next annual meeting at the University of Warwick on March 28-30, 2014. The preliminary program is now available on the Society's website. Sessions that may be of particular interest include: "Twentieth-Century British Industry"; "Regional Industry and Institutions"; "Railways and Economic Growth"; "Business Practices"; "State, Community, and Economy"; "Financial Crises"; "Capital Markets"; "Companies and the State"; "Financial Bubbles"; and "Mass Consumption and Marketing." The program will also feature the EHS Women's Committee 25th Anniversary Session, chaired by Helen Paul and including papers by Pat Thane, Maxine Berg, and Pat Hudson.     The 2014 Tawney Lecture will be delivered by Pat Hudson.     For fuller information, please see the EHS conference website .

"The Challenges of International Banking Regulation and Supervision after 1945" is a conference to be held at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management on January 16-17, 2014, jointly organized by the European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH), the ESRC-founded project 'The Development of International Financial Regulation and Supervision (1961-1982), based at the University of Glasgow , and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management . The organizers explain: Financial regulation and supervision has gained prominence in the public debate over the past few years. The aim of this conference is to contextualise discussions about financial regulation and supervision since 1945, in particular by providing a historical perspective to current debates. We want to bring together different approaches – legal, economic, political science/political economy, historical – in order to enrich and widen the debate about international regulation and s...

The Business History Society of Japan will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2014. To commemorate this milestone, the organization will hold a special Congress on the theme of “Competition and Cooperation,” focusing on the many facets of the three industrial revolutions—why they came about, how they developed, and what distinguishes them from one another—and the new ventures that business history scholars need to undertake in order to grasp the significance of new business systems. The general session on the main theme, titled “New Horizons in Business History,” will bring together renowned researchers from Japan, Europe, the United States, and Asia to give keynote lectures on challenges facing the discipline and ideal approaches for future progress. The Congress will take place at Bunkyo Gakuin University, Tokyo, on September 11-13, 2014. Given the 50th anniversary and the increasingly powerful role that globalization continues to play in the realm of research, the BHSJ has deci...

The December 2013 issue of Enterprise & Society is now available. In addition to the articles, this issue also contains Kenneth Lipartito's presidential address and abstracts of the dissertations presented in the Krooss Prize Dissertation session at the annual meeting: Presidential Address    Kenneth Lipartito , "Connecting the Cultural and the Material in Business History" Dissertation Summaries    Gavin Benke , "Electronic Bits and Ten Gallon Hats"    Bartow J. Elmore , "Citizen Coke: An Environmental and Political History of the Coca Cola Company"    Caitlin C. Rosenthal , "From Memory to Mastery: Accounting for Control in America, 1750–1880" Articles    Hsien-chun Wang , "Revisiting the Niuzhuang Oil Mill (1868–1870): Transferring Western Technology into China"    Madeleine Zelin , "Chinese Business Practice in the Late Imperial Period"    Jose Galindo , "The Economic Expansion of an Elite Busin...

The Business History Initiative at Harvard Business School is hosting a conference on June 13-14, 2014 :  "Business History in Africa, Asia, and Latin America: Integrating Course Development and New Research." The conference will focus on course development in business history and the history of capitalism beyond the developed economies of Europe, the United States, and East Asia. It will seek to leverage existing expertise about the field from countries where it is more established, as well as the experience of other disciplines, including world history and international business. Topics to be discussed include how to integrate the latest research into teaching materials; new and innovative pedagogical methods, including web-based learning and the use of oral history; the availability of primary sources; and the different interests and requirements of students in business schools, history departments, and in graduate programs. The conference will draw on an extensive glob...

The Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society has opened a new gallery in its on-line museum: “ The Mechanics of Legislation: Congress, the SEC and Financial Regulation .” It examines the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988 (ITSFEA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. The gallery includes links to almost 500 primary resources, including letters from legislators such as Speaker of the House Carl Albert and U.S. Representative Richard Armey to their constituents; papers from the William J. Clinton Library; and oral history interviews with former U.S. Senator Edward Kaufman and former U.S. Representative Michael Oxley. As noted by gallery curator Kurt Hohenstein, Over the years, financial legislation has become increasingly more complicated because our system has grown more complex. From the public’s view, the passage of legislation often appears to have come out of the blue, rapid and responsive to a public outcry for reform. In reality, m...