Progressive Business: An Intellectual History of the Role of Business in American Society

TY - BOOK

T1 - Progressive Business: An Intellectual History of the Role of Business in American Society

AU - Christiansen, Christian O.

PY - 2015/11/19

Y1 - 2015/11/19

N2 - This book is a history of ideas about progressive business. Against the conventional view that such ideas are fairly new, the book traces their history in three defining periods of US history: the late nineteenth century and its paternalistic spirit of capitalism, the New Deal era and its managerialist spirit of capitalism, and the recent era of globalization and its entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism. Progressive business has been offered as an alternative way of handling the manifold risks of industrial modernity. Ideas of progressive business have served multiple purposes: bolstering the social legitimacy of capitalism, responding to critiques of capitalism, avoiding union and state interference, and preserving the power of private command and private property. But it has also been a way in which business has been critiqued, and can therefore hardly be understood simply to be an ideology of the ruling class. The book helps explain how capitalism regained its social legitimacy in the face of different kinds of legitimacy crises, by appealing to ideals such as the social responsibility of industrialists, the soulful corporation, serving the public, or responsibility for humanity and life itself. Through a history of the idea of progressive business and its critics, we can not only get a better understanding of how and why it has been advocated—but also for what reasons it has disturbed critics from the right, who often feared that it would undermine the shareholder view of the corporation, and critics from the left, who consistently argued that it was no proper substitute for progressive politics.

AB - This book is a history of ideas about progressive business. Against the conventional view that such ideas are fairly new, the book traces their history in three defining periods of US history: the late nineteenth century and its paternalistic spirit of capitalism, the New Deal era and its managerialist spirit of capitalism, and the recent era of globalization and its entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism. Progressive business has been offered as an alternative way of handling the manifold risks of industrial modernity. Ideas of progressive business have served multiple purposes: bolstering the social legitimacy of capitalism, responding to critiques of capitalism, avoiding union and state interference, and preserving the power of private command and private property. But it has also been a way in which business has been critiqued, and can therefore hardly be understood simply to be an ideology of the ruling class. The book helps explain how capitalism regained its social legitimacy in the face of different kinds of legitimacy crises, by appealing to ideals such as the social responsibility of industrialists, the soulful corporation, serving the public, or responsibility for humanity and life itself. Through a history of the idea of progressive business and its critics, we can not only get a better understanding of how and why it has been advocated—but also for what reasons it has disturbed critics from the right, who often feared that it would undermine the shareholder view of the corporation, and critics from the left, who consistently argued that it was no proper substitute for progressive politics.

KW - Capitalism

KW - American History

KW - Corporate Social Responsibility

KW - Spirit of capitalism

KW - Intellectual history, history of ideas

KW - Twentieth Century

KW - Nineteenth Century

UR - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/progressive-business-9780198701033?cc=dk&lang=en&

U2 - 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198701033.001.0001

DO - 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198701033.001.0001

M3 - Book

SN - 9780198701033

BT - Progressive Business: An Intellectual History of the Role of Business in American Society

PB - Oxford University Press

ER -