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Recent Contributions to Business History: The United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

John G. B. Hutchins
Affiliation:
Cornell University

Extract

In the last two decades or so a new field of teaching and research, business history, has made its appearance. Like other fields of interdisciplinary origin it remains ill defined, and its literature exhibits the many points of view of its devotees, among whom are to be found historians, economists, students of administration, corporate officers, public relations men, and free-lance writers in search of drama. Consequently, we find wide variations in both analytical quality and historical accuracy and balance among the works. Very few of the studies approach the ideal of blending detailed historical investigation, meaningful analysis, and effective presentation, yet many nonetheless have marked interest. In this paper I shall endeavor, not to note in a comprehensive manner the many works, but rather to comment on how some of them have illuminated certain aspects of economic history, economics, and administration.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1959

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