American Enterprise

What does it mean to be an American? What are American ideas and values? American Enterprise, the companion book to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, aims to answer these questions about the American experience through an exploration of its economic and commercial history. It argues that by looking at the intersection of capitalism and democracy, we can see where we as a nation have come from and where we might be going in the future. Richly illustrated with images of objects from the museum’s collections, American Enterprise includes a 1794 dollar coin, Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone, a brass cash register from Marshall Fields, Sam Walton’s cap, and many other goods and services that have shaped American culture. Historical and contemporary advertisements are also featured, emphasizing the evolution of the relationship between producers and consumers over time. Interspersed in the historical narrative are essays from today’s industry leaders—including Sheila Bair, Adam Davidson, Bill Ford, Sally Greenberg, Fisk Johnson, Hank Paulson, Richard Trumka, and Pat Woertz—that pose provocative questions about the state of contemporary American business and society. American Enterprise is a multi-faceted survey of the nation’s business heritage and corresponding social effects that is fundamental to an understanding of the lives of the American people, the history of the United States, and the nation’s role in global affairs.

What does it mean to be an American? What are American ideas and values? American Enterprise, the companion book to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, aims to answer these questions about the American experience through an exploration of its economic and commercial history. It argues that by looking at the intersection of capitalism and democracy, we can see where we as a nation have come from and where we might be going in the future. Richly illustrated with images of objects from the museum’s collections, American Enterprise includes a 1794 dollar coin, Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone, a brass cash register from Marshall Fields, Sam Walton’s cap, and many other goods and services that have shaped American culture. Historical and contemporary advertisements are also featured, emphasizing the evolution of the relationship between producers and consumers over time. Interspersed in the historical narrative are essays from today’s industry leaders—including Sheila Bair, Adam Davidson, Bill Ford, Sally Greenberg, Fisk Johnson, Hank Paulson, Richard Trumka, and Pat Woertz—that pose provocative questions about the state of contemporary American business and society. American Enterprise is a multi-faceted survey of the nation’s business heritage and corresponding social effects that is fundamental to an understanding of the lives of the American people, the history of the United States, and the nation’s role in global affairs.

This book describes how American and Japanese management ideologies meet, collide, and contend in the process of competitive cooperation during a joint venture in Japan. In a detailed case study, Hamada describes the very real problems when Japanese and American managers run a business operation, and analyzes them from a comparative, relativistic, and historical perspective. The author presents a novel and effective way of viewing organizational dynamics, seeing the 'unfinished' cultural process between different sub-groups who create and recreate the symbolic meanings of corporate phenomena. Her succinct analysis of Japanese and American behavioral modes makes both practical and theoretical contributions to the field of international management. Highlighting the interdependence between corporate culture and broader societal culture, Hamada looks closely at interactions between American and Japanese businessmen, analyzes their cultural differences, and proposes that these differences can be viewed not just as a source of continuing conflict but of dynamic cooperation.

The people of the United States of America, take back their sovereignty, and reclaim their right to have a say in the policies and conduct of the government. The Author offers a third party alternative for those enterprising Americans who pay for the public sector and do not currently have fair representation or input to the system that has caused many fiscal, social, and foreign-relation problems that face this nation of 313 million citizens. It is not entitlement reform that we need, but rather, government reform. Any tax reform should eliminate taxes on adjusted taxable income and replace it with a flat 5 percent annual capital assessment on individual and corporate net worth. The new entitlements are eroding the American work ethic and need to be replaced with real, private-sector jobs that create a true return on our gross national product. The American Dream is built on work ethic. The will to work in a free market is inherited from their forefathers but sustained by each of them. While our country is on the verge of bankruptcy Congress and State Legislatures enacted over 40,000 new laws in 2010 costing $250 billion borrowed dollars we dont have plus $700 billion in stimulus, $1.2 trillion for Obama Care and turned on the Federal Reserve printing presses for another $1 trillion for enforcement, unfunded public service pensions, salary raises for themselves and the bureaucrats. To make things worse the Federal and State Governments understate their deficits by using the cash basis of accounting. For example the Federal deficit is $123 trillion after factoring in accounts payable and pension debt. These pension systems are extraordinarily diverse in design, investment policy, and governance, and they face substantial challenges as the government-sector workforce ages and governments are asked to take on new and different tasks. The new entitlements need a major overhaul. To avoid depriving enterprise of much-needed capital to create jobs, we need to reduce American workers dependency on unemployment benefits, minimum wage, workers compensation, food stamps, welfare, and Obama Care. (Obama Care will use enforcement agencies for collecting taxes, and waste depleted tax revenues treating illness not pursuing wellness).

In 1865, William Buck Dana, working a bold new departure in American journalism, established the nation's first business weekly, the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, in the country's commercial nerve center, New York City. As its publisher and editor, he became the nation's most influential reporter and commentator on business and finance, playing a major role in creating a national and international economy. Unequaled as a comprehensive and reliable source of business news, Dana's Chronicle has become a critical source for studying 19th century business history. This book is a study of Dana the man, his ideas, and their importance. Divided into three sections, the book considers Dana's formative years, his career, and his later life. The book then turns to the main themes conveyed in the Chronicle's editorial content, allowing the reader to imaginatively reconstruct Dana's mental world. Comments on Dana's and his paper's importance and influence are also included. While enlarging our understanding of Dana, the Chronicle, and economic thought of the time, Advocate for American Enterprise will enhance our understanding of this critically important era.

In 1933 choreographer George Balanchine and impresario Lincoln Kirstein embarked on an elusive quest to found a ballet company and school in the United States. Though their efforts would eventually result in the creation of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, the first decade of their collaborative efforts was anything but assured. Tracing the tangled histories of two of the most important figures in twentieth-century dance, Balanchine and Kirstein's American Enterprise offers a fresh perspective on a pivotal period in cultural history. Deeply researched using sources only made available in recent years, the book challenges the mythologies surrounding the early years of the Balanchine-Kirstein enterprise. It also reveals the full extent of Kirstein's essential role and offers reconstructive analysis of lost works, as well as new and surprising details regarding some of Balanchine's most iconic ballets, including Serenade, Apollo, and Concerto Barocco. This history involved artists including Richard Rodgers, Martha Graham, George Gershwin, Katherine Dunham, Vera Zorina, and Igor Stravinsky, as well as dozens of lesser known players whose contributions have yet to be fully acknowledged. Capturing the full sweep of Balanchine and Kirstein's collaborative work across multiple genres and institutions, this book reveals their partnership in all of its exciting and ungainly complexity, showing how the 1930s Balanchine was not the artist that he would eventually become, and how the same was true of the institutions that he and Kirstein jointly created.