The Exchange

An incomplete list of books of interest to business and economic historians, published from September to December, plus a few we missed over the summer: Scott W. Anderson, Auburn, New York: The Entrepreneurs' Frontier (Syracuse University Press, October 2015) Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn, Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans (Oxford University Press, November 2015) Trevor Burnard, Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650-1820 (University of Chicago Press, October 2015) Youssef Cassis and Philip L. Cottrell, Private Banking in Europe: Rise, Retreat, and Resurgence (Oxford University Press, September 2015) Andrew Wender Cohen, Contraband: Smuggling and the Birth of the American Century (W. W. Norton, August 2015)   Robert DuPlessis, The Material Atlantic: Clothing, Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650–1800 (Cambridge University Press, October 2015)  ...

In coordination with the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and the Scholarly Commons site of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, historians Andrew M. Schocket and Billy G. Smith have established the Magazine of Early American Datasets (MEAD) . MEAD is an online repository of datasets compiled by historians of early North America. The project preserves and makes available these datasets in their original format and as comma-separated-value files (.csv). Each body of data is also accompanied by a codebook. Seven datasets are currently available, including "U.S. Corporate Development, 1790-1850," from Robert Wright, and "Stockholders in the Bank of Pennsylvania, 1790," from Andrew Schocket.      Andrew M. Schocket , is professor of history and American culture studies and director of American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University; Billy G. Smith is the Michael P. Malone Professor of History and Distinguished Professor of Letters and S...

The University of Bergen, in cooperation with the European Business History Association (EBHA), will host the 1st World Congress on Business History, which will be held in conjunction with the 20th Congress of the European Business History Association. The theme of the meeting, to be held August 25-27, 2016, in Bergen, Norway, will be “Business History around the World.”     The call for papers states: Today business and globalization are under fire. Both multinational and local businesses are challenged by a combination of an insecure macroeconomic environment and expectations about commerce’s social role. Recent economic data has called into question the inevitability of high growth rates in even the most dynamic emerging markets, such as China and Brazil, and raised questions about the viability of old and new business models. Much of Europe has not completely recovered from the 2008 Crisis and its aftershocks. In contrast to many other downturns, US growth does not s...

The Centre for Business History at Copenhagen Business School will host a paper development workshop (PDW) for scholars conducting research on "the uses of history and memory in organizations and organizing" on  Wednesday, December 9, 2015 . The organizers welcome applications from scholars of all backgrounds conducting research on the question of why, how, and with what effects the past is used by manager s and organizations. The goal of the PDW is, in part, to support the development of research and foster dialogue among scholars who may be interested in submitting papers to the Special Issue of Organization Studies devoted to the same topic, though neither application nor attendance at the workshop is required for full consideration of papers submitted for the special issue.  More information about the Special Issue can be found here . Limited funds may be available on a competitive basis for applicants who are unable to get funding from their home institutions. To ...

The Business History Initiative at Harvard Business School will host a one-day meeting on October 30, 2015, on "The Business History of India and South Asia: Recent Trends in Research." According to the website, This conference aims to survey recent scholarship on the history of business in India and South Asia. It will bring together faculty and students from a range of disciplines, including economic and business history, economics, political science, and strategy. The substance of the discussion, throughout the day, will include the nature of business-government relations; the role of families in business; the rise of corporate social responsibility; and the challenges and opportunities of globalization, including the role of the diaspora.The conference will also focus on the growing range of sources available for scholarly research, including oral histories. The conference program is available here . The meeting will include discussion of  Creating Emerging Marke...

The 2016 American Historical Association (AHA) meeting will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 7-10. The program has now been posted on-line at the meeting website . The theme of the meeting is "Global Migrations: Empires, Nations, and Neighbors." Many sessions are of direct interest to business and economic historians. (Links lead to session panels and abstracts.)     First, there are the sessions and luncheon sponsored by the Business History Conference. The BHC luncheon theme this year is "Business and Borders: Capitalism." Sponsored sessions are: Session 38 : "New Histories of the Trade in Old Stuff: Re-Use and Resale in 20th-Century American Popular Culture" Session 91 : "War in the Western World: New Economic and Social Perspectives" Session 119 : "Labor Migration from and to Europe: Migrants as Job Seekers and Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs" Session 155 : "Pipe Dreams: Aspirations and Impacts of Oil Transport...

Links to some of the major grant and fellowship programs (primarily US) of interest to business and economic historians are provided below. [Please note that some programs do not yet have current application materials available; in those cases, the link goes to the last available information.] Hagley Museum and Library     Hagley Grants and Fellowships , overview     Henry Belin du Pont Dissertation Fellowship     Henry Belin du Pont Research Grants     Exploratory Research Grants     Miller Center/Hagley Library Dissertation Fellowship in Business and Politics Harvard Business School     Thomas K. McCraw Fellowship in Business History       Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., International Visiting Scholars in Business History Program     Harvard-Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellowship     Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Travel Fellowships BAC Bursary for Business History Research Beckman Cente...

On November 6, 2015, the Hagley Museum and Library will host a conference on "Doing Business Across Borders," sponsored by the Hagley's Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society. The conference flyer is now available on the Hagley site. Session titles are: Commodities and Networks Knowledge and Control Policing Borders Contesting Globalization There is no fee. but advance registration is required. Lunch on site can be purchased in advance for $15. Please contact Carol Lockman for program and registration information. .

A reminder that the deadlines for these two fellowships are fast approaching: the deadline for the Harvard-Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellowship is October 15, 2015 ; for the Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Fellowships the deadline is November 2, 1015 . The Harvard-Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellowship in Business History This Fellowship will be awarded for twelve months’ residence, study, and research at Harvard Business School. The fellowship is open to scholars who, within the last ten years, have received a Ph.D. in history, economics, or a related discipline. The fellowship has two purposes: The first is to enable scholars to engage in research that will benefit from the resources of Harvard Business School and the larger Boston scholarly community. A travel fund and a book fund will be provided. The second is to provide an opportunity for the fellow to participate in the activities of Harvard Business School. The fellow is required to research and write a case, under the direction of...

A reminder that the deadline for paper proposals for the 2016 BHC annual meeting is 1 October 2015. The 2016 Business History Conference Annual Meeting will be held in Portland, Oregon, on March 31-April 2, 2016. The theme of the meeting will be " Reinterpretation." All sessions will take place at the Embassy Suites Portland-Downtown , located in the historic Multnomah Hotel building.       The Program Committee encourages panels and individual papers that answer the call to "Reinterpretation," expansively interpreted. Topics that examine the forces shaping our future by reinterpreting research related to the Pacific Rim are but one important example of numerous “settled” or incomplete bodies of business history scholarship from which reinterpretation promises to generate fresh constructs and new insights. In keeping with longstanding BHC policy the Program Committee will give equal consideration to submissions not directly related to the conference theme. ...

On the centennial of his death, the Samuel C. Williams Library and the College of Arts and Letters at Stevens Institute of Technology are holding a conference to celebrate the achievements and legacy of Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), a Stevens graduate. The conference, "Taylor's World," will be held September 24-25, 2015, at Stevens Institute in Hoboken, New Jersey. The conference program is now available on-line.     Those wishing to attend must register by September 22 . For additional information, please consult the conference website .

"Denim on Stage: university meets industry at Denim City in Amsterdam" is a one-day conference to be held on October 30, 2015. The aim of this meeting is to "explore the evolution of denim from its origins in the French town of Nîmes, through the American invention of the modern blue jeans, to the contemporary global manufacturing and marketing of denim and jeans." The program brings together business historians, cultural historians, and industry practitioners to examine the history of denim as an industry and a cultural phenomenon. The full program is available on the conference website.      The conference is free and open to anyone with an interest in the business history of fashion, but only a limited number of places are available; registration is required. Please check the conference website for more information .      This conference is organized by Erasmus University Rotterdam on behalf of the " Enterprise of Culture" project . The e...

In April 2015, the World Bank Group launched its Archives Holdings website, part of a project to make declassified materials widely accessible. According to the World Bank blog "Voices," This is a state-of-the-art platform, which maximizes the public’s online access to a vast amount of original primary source material in the custody of the Archives. . . . The website delivers an increasing quantity of digitized records from the early 1940s onward, making them available for the first time to public users who cannot come to the Archives reading room in Washington, D.C. Users should note that the project is ongoing; more records are being added regularly. There is a "How To Use Our Site" section that explains how to search and how to find digitized sources among search results.

Paige Glotzer , working on a dissertation on "the history of suburban development in the United States between 1890 and 1960" at the Johns Hopkins University, was recently the AHA's Spotlight Member. She presented a paper on her work at the 2015 BHC meeting. Many sites reported the recent death of Stanford economic historian Nathan Rosenberg, who published important work on the history of technological change. Stanford's remembrance is here ;  Richard Langlois comments here . Patrick Fridenson has posted Joel Mokyr's remembrance from EH.Net here . The Library at Villanova University is digitizing its collection of dime novels . The project is ongoing; first fruits are now available. There is also a web exhibit , "Paper for the People: Dime Novels and Early Mass Market Publishing." JSTOR Daily reports on dismay among preservationists at the US Postal Service's decision to sell post office buildings , many containing murals and other artwork ...

As the new academic year begins, we again offer a round-up of ongoing workshops, forums, and discussion groups in business and economic history. Please check each website for more detailed information. Some groups, particularly those in non-US universities, may not yet have posted Fall 2015 information; in those cases, a link to the home site or last available listing is included.      In addition to their value for those able to participate directly, these groups often maintain mailing lists and sometimes make speakers' papers freely available. Business History Seminar , Harvard Business School (scroll down) Business History @ Erasmus Seminars Centre for Business History Seminar , Copenhagen Business School Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society (Hagley) Research Seminars Centre for Macroeconomics and the Historical Record (MEHR), University of Copenhagen Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History , Harvard University...

Over the summer, the podcast series, "New Books in . . . " interviewed a number of authors with books of interest. A partial listing: Jonathan Coopersmith , on Faxed: The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine (Johns Hopkins University Press) Christine Desan , on Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism (Oxford University Press) Kevin M. Kruse , One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (Basic Books) Pedro Machado , Ocean of Trade: South Asian Merchants, Africa, and the Indian Ocean, c. 1750-1850 (Cambridge University Press) Brian P. Murphy , on Building the Empire State: Political Economy in the Early Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) Suzanna Reiss , We Sell Drugs: The Alchemy of US Empire (University of California Press) [reposted from "Who Makes Cents?"] Brett Sheehan , Industrial Eden: A Chinese Capitalist Vision (Harvard University Press) Jenifer Van Vleck , on Empire of the Air: Aviati...