Enterprising America

The rise of America from a colonial outpost to one of the world’s most sophisticated and productive economies was facilitated by the establishment of a variety of economic enterprises pursued within the framework of laws and institutions that set the rules for their organization and operation. To better understand the historical processes central to American economic development, Enterprising America brings together contributors who address the economic behavior of American firms and financial institutions—and the associated legal institutions that shaped their behavior—throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Collectively, the contributions provide an account of the ways in which businesses, banks, and credit markets promoted America’s extraordinary economic growth. Among the topics that emerge are the rise of incorporation and its connection to factory production in manufacturing, the organization and operation of large cotton plantations in comparison with factories, the regulation and governance of banks, the transportation revolution’s influence on bank stability and survival, and the emergence of long-distance credit in the context of an economy that was growing rapidly and becoming increasingly integrated across space.

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.

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 Women and the Historical Enterprise in America, Julie Des Jardins explores American women's participation in the practice of history from the late nineteenth century through the end of World War II, a period in which history became professionalized as an increasingly masculine field of scientific inquiry. Des Jardins shows how women nevertheless transformed the profession during these years in their roles as writers, preservationists, educators, archivists, government workers, and social activists. Des Jardins explores the work of a wide variety of women historians, both professional and amateur, popular and scholarly, conservative and radical, white and nonwhite. Although their ability to earn professional credentials and gain research access to official documents was limited by their gender (and often by their race), these historians addressed important new questions and represented social groups traditionally omitted from the historical record, such as workers, African Americans, Native Americans, and religious minorities. Assessing the historical contributions of Mary Beard, Zora Neale Hurston, Angie Debo, Mari Sandoz, Lucy Salmon, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Porter, Nellie Neilson, and many others, Des Jardins argues that women working within the broadest confines of the historical enterprise collectively brought the new perspectives of social and cultural history to the study of a multifaceted American past. In the process, they not only developed the field of women's history but also influenced the creation of our national memory in the twentieth century.

Papers of the conference "Enterprising America: businesses, banks, and credit markets in historical perspective", held at Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, on December 14, 2013.

An inspiring collection of American women entrepreneurs introduces readers to women who have cared out their own slice of the economic pie, from Colonial times to present.

Adam Smith was a Scottish professor of moral philosophy. He published his classic The Wealth of Nations in 1776, the year the American Revolution began. Smith became widely known for his ideas of free markets, laissez-faire commerce, and the "invisible hand." Yet English politicians, landed gentry, and the nobility paid little attention and enacted none of Smith's suggested reforms. The American colonies, however, began their existence as an independent nation in 1781 with no money, no industry, no banks, and deep in debt. The Founding Fathers-particularly Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin-turned to the ideas of Adam Smith to create and jump-start an economic system for America with both immediate and long-sustained results. This little-known but vital part of U.S. history is now revealed in Roy C. Smith's highly readable new book.