The Exchange

The Economic History Society of Southern Africa (EHSSA) has published volume 3 of its newsletter, the South African Economic History Annual . Among several articles of interest, readers may find most pertinent Grietjie Verhoef's essay on "Business history in Africa: the state of the art" (pp. 10-20), which includes a helpful reference list.     Volumes 1 and 2 are also available on-line. In addition, the EHSSA publishes a scholarly journal, Economic History of Developing Regions (previously the South African Journal of Economic History ).

The Business School at the University of Auckland in New Zealand instituted a Business History Project to trace the history of some of New Zealand's major businesses. Although the site does not seem to have recent additions, the original impetus to investigate New Zealand's "pioneers in commerce, the firms that they created, and the products and services which became household names" resulted in several company histories, each featuring a company profile; a history of key products and services; and a timeline of key events in the company’s history. Several other projects, including a book of essays, City of Enterprise: Perspectives on Auckland Business History (2006), were also completed.    (Note that most of the menu links from the project subpages do not work, but the links on the main page listed above do lead to the company histories and information about other projects.)

The Economic History Society will hold its annual meeting on March 27-29, 2015, at the University of Wolverhampton Telford Campus, UK. The preliminary conference program has been posted on the conference website. The meeting begins with over a dozen "new researcher sessions" on Friday, followed by a plenary address by Barrie Trinder: "Reflections on the Industrial Revolution in Shropshire." After full sessions on Saturday and part of Sunday, the conference concludes with the Tawney Lecture, presented this year by Martin Daunton (University of Cambridge): " Contesting Reconstruction: Remaking the Global Economic Order after 1945."     The on-line registration site is now operative, with an early bird discount that expires February 4 .     Some papers are available on-line, and will be linked from the program as they are posted.

"Imagining Markets" is a combined website to report information relevant to two projects hosted by the University of Exeter’s History Department: "Imagining Markets: Conceptions of Europe, Empire/Commonwealth and China in Britain’s Economic Future since 1900" (AHRC network, 2014-16), established by David Thackeray, Andrew Thompson, and Richard Toye, and David Thackeray’s AHRC Research Leadership Fellowship: "Backing Britain: Imagining a Nation’s Economic Future since 1900" (2014-15). As the initial post explains, "Both projects are united by an interest in connecting historical and contemporary ways of thinking about Britain’s future global economic orientation, and involve a range of activities staged with project partners from the fields of public policy and heritage organisations." The website includes a blog, notices of events, and descriptions of the primary and related projects.

Jason Heppler , a Ph.D. candidate in western and digital history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and academic technology specialist, Department of History and Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Research (CIDR), Stanford, has released an early "digital component" of his dissertation. " Machines in the Valley: Growth, Conflict, and Environmental Politics in Silicon Valley, 1945-1990 " "examines the environmental, economic, and cultural conflicts over suburbanization andindustrialization in California’s Santa Clara Valley–today known as Silicon Valley–between 1945 and 1990. . . . The project will go through iterations as I finish my written dissertation. The project will house several features, including interactive visualizations, dynamic narratives and analysis that extend upon themes covered in my chapters, and access to certain primary sources." A work-in-progress, the website features data (freely available), maps and other digital visualizatio...

A list, by no means complete, of books of interest to business and economic historians published or forthcoming between November  2014 and February 2015: David Grayson Allen, Investment Management in Boston: A History (University of Massachusetts Press, January 2015) Christopher Beauchamp, Invented by Law: Alexander Graham Bell and the Patent That Changed America (Harvard University Press, January 2015) Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Knopf, December 2014) Sean Bottomley, The British Patent System during the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1852: From Privilege to Property (Cambridge University Press, December 2014) Simon James Bytheway, Investing Japan: Foreign Capital, Monetary Standards, and Economic Development, 1859-2011 (Harvard University Press, November 2014) Jonathan Coopersmith, Faxed: The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine (Johns Hopkins University Press, February 2015) Christine Desan, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of ...

Special Collections at the Providence (Rhode Island) Public Library has produced an on-line exhibit called "Saltwater Colors," displaying many illustrations from their Nicholson Whaling Collection . The drawings, scrimshaw, watercolors, and other media "highlight artistic creations by whalemen during the age of offshore whaling." Several of the library's whaling logbooks have been digitized. Bartow Elmore of the University of Alabama recently published an essay in Fortune , based on his new book, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W. W. Norton, 2014); the book was also recently reviewed in both the Wall Street Journal (by Marc Levinson) and the New York Times (by Beth Macy). Discussion of Thomas Piketty and Capital in the 21st Century continues:     Deirdre McCloskey has published a review essay , and that essay itself has been discussed by John  Cochrane ("The Grumpy Economist") on his blog .     Slate published an es...

On September 24- 25, 2015, Stevens Institute of Technology will host a conference on the life and legacy of Frederick Winslow Taylor, a Stevens graduate and widely recognized as the father of scientific management. "Taylor's World" marks the centennial of Taylor’s death in 1915; the conference will explore both Taylor’s place in history and his legacy in the twenty-first century.     Proposals for either individual papers or full panels are welcome. Potential topics include but are not limited to: Taylor’s influence on contemporary management practice The movement of Taylor’s ideas around the globe Vestiges of Taylorism in digital media and labor, including Digital Turking and other forms of crowd sourcing The place of organized labor, race, gender, and sexuality in Taylor’s thought and work Taylor’s place in intellectual and cultural history Taylor’s influence on sports technologies, especially golf and tennis The effect of Taylorism on business strategy and ...

A few weeks ago, we posted links to 2015 NEH Summer Institutes and Workshops for K-12 Teachers. This list highlights programs of interest for college and university teachers: The Cross-Border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and Their Homelands (UCLA) American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York (Bard Graduate Center) City of Print: New York and the Periodical Press (New York City College of Technology) Slavery in the American Republic: From Constitution to Civil War (Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville, Virginia) Teaching the History of Modern Design: The Canon and Beyond (Drexel University); Regina Blaszczyk is among the instructors, focusing on design for mass markets. The full list of summer programs can be found here . Each workshop is developed by the hosting institution(s), and application must be made directly to the program in which one wishes to participate. Accepted applicants will be provided with a stipend to help defray expenses. The applicati...

The Association of Business Historians (ABH) will hold its fourth Tony Slaven Doctoral Training Workshop on July 2-3, 2015, immediately preceding the 2015 ABH Annual Conference at the University of Exeter Business School. Workshop participants will also be welcome, and indeed, encouraged, to attend the main ABH Annual Conference. Students at any stage of their doctoral career, whether first year or near submitting, 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 at least one skills-related workshop. According to the Workshop announcement: Business history doctoral work is spread over a large number of departments and institutions and by bringing students for an annual workshop, we hope to strengthen links between students working on business history and related topics. For the purposes of the workshop 'business history' is ther...

As part of the ESRC Seminar Series on “Organizations and Society: Historicising the theory and practice of organization analysis,” Aston Business School in Birmingham, UK, will hold a seminar on “Managing the Past: The Role of Organisational Archives” on Wednesday, March 18, 2015. Contributions are invited that reflect the general theme of the seminar, how the past is managed in organizations, and how the theory and practice of archiving reflects the organizational engagement with the past. Potential themes include, but are not limited to: · Archives as organizational memory? · Managing organizational pasts – assets and dark secrets · Safeguarding organizational heritage – the Wedgwood Collection and beyond · Heritage, brands and national identities  · The professionalization of archivists and history managers · Digital humanities and the organization  Those wishing to present a paper at the seminar should submit a 500-word abstract to Stephanie Decker at s.decker@ast...

Sven Beckert , Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University, has been in the news often in recent days in relation to his new book, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Knopf, December 2014). Here is a compendium to date: the book was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times by Adam Hochschild; and in "Books of the Times" by Thomas Bender; by Wendy Smith in the Boston Globe ; by Eric Herschthal for Slate in "The Fabric of Our Lives"; by Timothy Shenk as part of a review essay in The Nation on "Apostles of Growth";  by Karen Long in Newsday ; in The Economist ; by Daniel Walker Howe in the Washington Post the book was featured by Andrew Smith in his blog, "The Past Speaks" Beckert was interviewed about the book by Diane Rehm for her NPR program; he was also interviewed in the NYTimes Book Review podcast about the book; he published an essay based on his book in The Atlantic ; he published an essay, "Slavery and C...

The Economics Network of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) calls for papers for the Association's annual conference. The 2015 meeting will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 12-15. The conference theme is "Pluralism and Community: Social Science History Perspectives."     SSHA draws submissions of papers and panels through networks organized by topic or field. The Economics network representatives are Phil Hoffman , Matt Jaremski , and Evan Roberts . They invite submissions of papers or (preferably) full panels (note that this year all panels of research papers must have four papers when submitted) by February 14, 2015 . They would also like to hear from people who are willing to serve as chairs or discussants. Potential presenters and organizers are free to contact the network representatives with questions, but actual paper and session proposals must be submitted online on the SSHA website; the submission system will open in early January. ...

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has recently digitized the diaries, press conferences, and War Refugee Board materials of Henry Morgenthau, Jr. , head of the Farm Credit Administration and Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury (1934-1945). FRANKLIN, the Library's virtual research room and digital repository, now provides free online access to more than 400,000 pages documenting Morgenthau's life, career, and accomplishments. According to the website, The Morgenthau Diaries and Press Conferences are some of the most unique resources in the Roosevelt Library. No other Cabinet official kept as complete a record of his official activities and his relationship to the President than Henry Morgenthau, Jr.. . . .[the Library] seeks to enhance the understanding of Morgenthau’s contributions to the New Deal and war effort as FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury. The Library website provides historical information and descriptions of each part of the colle...