Articles & Newsletters

Learn from History’s Great Innovators!

Learn from History’s Great Innovators!

For four successive Tuesday evenings, starting August 23, I will moderate small group Zoom discussions about some of the most important entrepreneurs and innovators in American business history.  This series follows our successful Great Leaders course which...

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Student Essay Contest $3,000 First Prize

Student Essay Contest $3,000 First Prize

The American Business History Center is proud to introduce our first annual Business History Essay Contest for High School Students. This is a chance for students to learn about businesses and how they are built, that they are human ventures and have human stories and...

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Upcoming Event on Sun March 7 at 9 PM EST

Upcoming Event on Sun March 7 at 9 PM EST

Tune in to the History Channel on Sunday, March 7, at 9 PM Eastern time, to see my appearance in their series The Food That Made America in an episode about “the Cola Wars.” I will see it at the same time you do, so I make no predictions about how nice I will look or...

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Help Us Engage Young People!

Help Us Engage Young People!

It has never been a more important time to engage young people in the free enterprise system, for them to learn about businesses and how they are built, that they are human ventures and have human stories and attributes.  Big businesses grow from small seeds.  Even...

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Three Fun Books on Business History

Three Fun Books on Business History

Some of us still have too much time alone and at home, so it is a good time to get some reading in.  In a prior newsletter, we recommended Alfred Chandler’s Visible Hand as the single most important book to read on business history.  Anyone who is literate about...

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What Became of My Bank?

What Became of My Bank?

No industry has seen more name changes and mergers and acquisitions than America’s banking industry.  Many people don’t realize that BankAmerica, Chase Manhattan, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo – all among the ten largest banks thirty years ago – were each absorbed...

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And the Answers Are….

And the Answers Are….

Last Friday we sent you a link to a business history crossword puzzle, which many of you visited. We promised the answers today, so here they are. If for any reason you missed the puzzle, you can still take it here and fill it out right in your browser. Or look at the...

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Stuck at Home?

Stuck at Home?

Like everyone else, we at the American Business History Center have no sports to watch, fewer restaurants to patronize, and even a shortage of exciting primary elections to follow.  So what better time to entertain and educate ourselves through reading and...

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The Data-Driven Visionary

The Data-Driven Visionary

In 1941, Fred Lazarus, Jr., had some time to kill in Houston.  He had come to visit his son Ralph who was serving in the Army at nearby Ellington Field.   Twelve years earlier, Lazarus and his family had united their family-owned Lazarus department...

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We Want Your Stories!

Dear friends of business history,We need your stories and anecdotes about business to enhance our telling of history.  What companies have you worked for?  What was it like?  Did you work on any innovations or observe changes in the company or industry?...

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