Introduction: The Business of America

Summary

In democracies, nothing is more great or more brilliant than commerce; it attracts the attention of the public, and fills the imagination of the multitude; all energetic passions are directed towards it.

– Alexis de Tocqueville

Anyone who doubts the importance of business history should keep in mind this salient fact: It concerns not merely the history of business in the United States but even more the process by which business came to dominate every aspect of American life. Business is not simply an important element of American life; like it or not, it has become the dominant force in American culture. Try to think of a single human activity that has not been organized into a business of some kind, and in most cases a very large business.

This book is not a comprehensive history of American business. It is rather an interpretation of the most seminal period of that history and seeks to explain how business came to occupy the center stage of American life. The story begins with the most revolutionary process that the world has experienced. Industrialization remains the great divide in human history, separating past from present cultures, transforming values as well as life styles, leaving a monumental imprint on the environment, and setting in motion forces that drove its impact inexorably onward. It transcended ideologies, defied political strictures, ignored moral dictums, overturned social orders, and unraveled the fabric of tradition.