by Gary Hoover | Aug 31, 2023 | Articles, Articles, Articles, Business in General, Healthcare, Newsletters, Retailing
Whole Foods Founder Begins a New Adventure At the American Business History Center, we rarely comment on current events or living entrepreneurs. At the same time, our study of the lessons of the past is motivated by our desire to understand the present and the...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 17, 2023 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Today we present our annual update of the twenty biggest employers among US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart above. Enjoy and share! Gary Hoover Executive Director American Business History...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 3, 2023 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Today we present our annual update of the market capitalizations of the twenty most valuable US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart below, which you can control, or a video here. Enjoy and share! Gary HooverExecutive DirectorAmerican...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 13, 2023 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Here we present our annual update to our animated chart of the highest profit American companies, now extended to include results for 2022. You can pause them and move them to any year to see the lists of the top 20. We find studying them over and over very...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 29, 2023 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
In this, our 161st newsletter, we present our annual update to our animated chart of the largest companies, now extended to include results for 2022. The picture above shows the leading companies when Fortune first did a list of all US companies for 1994 (previously...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 2, 2022 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Aug 26, 2022 | American Business History Center News, Business in General, Newsletters
Autumn is the time many Americans put on their thinking caps and start learning again, after a summer break. So we’re offering zoom courses with Gary Hoover. We are excited to add new industry-specific, very affordable classes on the automobile, airline,...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 23, 2022 | Articles, Articles, Business in General, Newsletters, Other Industries
(Photo above: Guardian Building, Detroit, Michigan) America’s great skyscrapers, museums, hotels, train stations, churches, and other structures reflect the ambitions and dreams of our society. Funded by the wealth generated by our economic system, they are...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 17, 2022 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jul 17, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
This week we present our animated chart of the largest employers in America among our big, public companies. In the last three weeks, we have published similar charts based on revenues, on profits, and on market capitalization, all of which can be found by clicking...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 8, 2022 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jul 8, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 3, 2022 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jul 3, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. (Our original post listed this as the 25 highest profit companies but should have said 20 highest profit companies.) Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies,...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 26, 2022 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jun 26, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune magazine “Fortune 500” list of the biggest public companies...
by Gary Hoover | Dec 21, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Business in General, Demography and Geography, Newsletters
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards” – Steve Jobs The American Business History Center wishes happy holidays to all of our readers. As another year comes to a close, it’s a great time to think back over time,...
by Gary Hoover | Oct 21, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Business in General, Newsletters, Retailing, Share Your History
Today I write a more personal note, which we don’t often do in these newsletters. My lifelong study of businesses, working in them and starting them, has led me to think about how one sees the future clearly. The many great business leaders we profile on...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 23, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
One of our key goals at the American Business History Center is to learn lessons from the successes and failures of the past. In most of our weekly articles, we leave it to our readers to draw their own lessons, although we occasionally touch on what can be...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 16, 2021 | Data, Data, Demography and Geography, Newsletters
This week we present another of our popular animated charts. In this one, we show the populations of the states of the United States from the Census, every ten years from 1790 through 2020. The list is long, including all fifty ultimate states. The data...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 17, 2021 | Data, Data, Newsletters, Transportation
The United States airline system, one of the technological and business wonders of the twentieth century, evolved in the 1920s and 1930s. With early subsidies from the Post Office for carrying mail, airplanes began connecting US cities. With successive air...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 13, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Biographies, Books, Business in General, Newsletters
July 9 is the deadline for our high school essay contest, with $7500 in prizes, including $3000 for the best essay. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! …. and, by the way, this is the 100th issue of our free weekly newsletter! Today we recommend two books for our fellow...
by Gary Hoover | May 20, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
On May 8, 2019, two years ago, four of us launched the American Business History Center. As enumerated below, we are pleased with the growth of our weekly newsletter and our website traffic (shown above). Your donations have helped us continue our work and will help...
by Gary Hoover | May 12, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Last week, the Census Bureau published their annual estimates of population, as of July 1, 2020. Population trends underly all economic activity, so we study that data as soon as it is released. The fastest growing and shrinking cities and metropolitan areas...
by Gary Hoover | May 6, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Few business subjects fascinate people as much as the very wealthy. Our obsession with celebrity goes back centuries but seems to have accelerated in recent decades. Forbes produced its first list of the richest Americans in 1982 and later started publishing it...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 29, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Articles, Business in General, Consumer Products, Newsletters, Retailing
While most big companies disappear over time (as shown in our recent newsletter), some figure out how to survive and prosper decade after decade, even century after century. But is the journey from founding to long-term durability a straight path? Today...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 23, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Books, Business in General, Newsletters
Big Rich Forbes magazine just released their annual list of the richest people in the world, topped by Jeff Bezos at $177 billion and Elon Musk at $151 billion. Computer scientist and founder of the incubator Y Combinator Paul Graham has written an excellent...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 15, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
One of the most significant shifts in American business over the last several decades has been the shrinking number of big corporations headquartered in New York City. At first, some moved “upstate” to the New York suburbs and to Connecticut. But more...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 1, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
A careful study of this week’s list will show you the huge American industries which once dominated stock markets, employment, and community life, but which are not as important in the age of Amazon and Google. Our readers know we love lists. There are few other...
by Gary Hoover | Mar 24, 2021 | Articles, Data, Data, Newsletters, Retailing
The $6.3 trillion US retailing industry has evolved continuously since the end of the Civil War, when the first chain grocery stores and first department stores began to develop. This chart, based on data from the US Census, shows how the different types of...
by Gary Hoover | Feb 26, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Articles, Biographies, Business in General, Newsletters, Other Industries, Technology
We are all familiar with the visionary entrepreneur Charles R. Schwab who pioneered the discount stock brokerage industry in the 1970s. But almost no one remembers the unrelated Charles M. Schwab, one of the most important business leaders in American history....
by Gary Hoover | Oct 9, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
We wrote this five years ago, before the American Business History Center was founded, but we stand by our choices. For the last 52 years, I have been obsessed with understanding what makes a company great. What leads to success; what leads away. This led me to...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 18, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Fifty-seven years ago, meatpacking giant Swift was the 15th largest public company in the world. Today that 15th spot is held by American health insurer UnitedHealth. Apple sits in the 12th position formerly held by Texaco, now part of Chevron. ...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 3, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
Fortune Magazine, the Wonder of the 1930s In February 1930, the greatest American magazine publisher, Harry Luce, produced the first issue of Fortune magazine. His seven-year-old Time magazine had become a huge success. Luce and his company then created...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
Mergers and acquisitions have been common throughout business history. Three major waves were particularly important: the building of the trusts, trying to dominate each industry, in the 1890s; another round of industry consolidations in the roaring 1920s; and...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 20, 2020 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Aug 20, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. On Market Capitalization as a Measure of Size or Success Your history reporter has been studying big business for fifty-seven years (I started subscribing to Fortune magazine in 1963, when I was twelve years...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 30, 2020 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the companies which made...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 30, 2020 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jul 16, 2020 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jul 16, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the largest employers...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 2, 2020 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jul 2, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
“Last week we brought you an unprecedented animated chart of the Fortune 500 list since 1994. Here we go back another 40 years, when steel companies and meatpackers were still giants. Taken together, you can learn a lot from 65 years of history.” Last...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 25, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. The saga of American business in one chart! The fall of Enron, the rise of Apple and Amazon, the enduring legacy of John Rockefeller in Exxon and Chevron – see the years fly by! Below the two charts...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 25, 2020 | Videos
by Gary Hoover | Jun 19, 2020 | Articles, Articles, Business in General, Consumer Products, Newsletters
America has hundreds of thousands of privately-held, family-owned businesses. Thousands of them are large. The list of the largest ones is topped by the hundred-billion-dollar grain and commodities dealer Cargill, the diversified Koch Industries, and candy...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 9, 2020 | Articles, Biographies, Business in General, Newsletters
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. Over the last two-and-one-half years, we at the American Business History Center, in conjunction with the Archbridge Institute, have written and published...
by Gary Hoover | Nov 14, 2019 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Data, Demography and Geography
Two weeks ago, we presented an animated chart showing the most popular American cities – the metropolitan areas which received the most domestic migrants in each year from 2010 through 2018. This week, we created an animated chart showing “the...
by Gary Hoover | Nov 13, 2019 | Demography and Geography, Videos
by Gary Hoover | Nov 1, 2019 | Data, Demography and Geography, Videos