Lewis and Netwon - Writing Corporate History

The Writing of Corporate HistoryAuthor(s): W. David Lewis and Wesley Phillips NewtonSource: The Public Historian, Vol. 3, No. 3, Business and History (Summer, 1981), pp. 62-74Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3377732Accessed: 05/04/2010 06:16

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The Writing of Corporate History

W. DAVID LEWIS AND WESLEY PHILLIPS NEWTON

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1 HORSTEIN VEBLEN once declared that corporations had become the "master instruments of civilization," while Nicholas Murray Butler believed that the limited liability corporation was "the greatest single discovery of modern times," alongside which even such key technological innovations as the steam engine and elec- trical power were relatively insignificant. In their classic study The Modern Corporation and Private Property, Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means argued that a "corporate system" had replaced the feudal order that predominated in the medieval world, while more recently such writers as John Kenneth Galbraith have emphasized the increasing convergence of the two institutions which, more than any others, shape the pattern of our everyday lives: the large corporation and the nation-state. The statement of economic historian Charles M. Haar is just as true today as it was when written nearly forty years ago:

The corporation is the dominant fact in our modern economic world. It has become the prevailing form of business organization, the chief owner of assets, the principal receiver of income, the most important employer. Because of its tremendous economic

63 The Public Historian, Vol. 3, No. 3, Summer, 1981

t 1981 by the Regents of the University of California 0 2 7 2 - 3 4 3 3 / 8 1 / 0 3 0 0 6 3 + 1 2 $ O O . S O

DUST JACKET FROM VM DAVID LEWIS AND WESLEY PHILIPS NEW- TON'S CORPORATE HISTORY DELTA: THE HISTORY OF AN AIRLINE.

64 * THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN

power, the corporation's influence has not been confined to that realm alone but has welled over to other fields, to politics, to international affairs, even to social organizations. 1

To understand the history of the modern world, it would seem, one must obviously understand the history of corporations. Yet, paradoxically, professional historians have with relatively few ex- ceptions tended to shy away from this potentially rewarding field of study. Thanks to the pioneering activities of such persons as Alfred D. Chandler, Thomas C. Cochran, Ralph and Muriel Hidy, Allan Nevins, Richard Overton, and Harold F. Williamson, there is a growing body of scholarly volumes dealing with the development of key firms in such areas as banking and finance, insurance, manufacturing, merchandising, and transportation.2

1. See Adolf A. Berle, Jr. and Gardiner C. Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property, reprinted ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1948), pp. 1-2; Nicholas Mur- ray Butler, Why Should We Change Our Form of Government? Studies in Practical Politics (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912), p. 83; Charles M. Haar, "Legisla- tive Regulation of New York Industrial Corporations, 1800-1850," New York History, XXII (April, 1941), p. 191.

2. See particularly Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1962); Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and Stephen Salsbury, Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation (New York: Harper and Rov, 1971); Thomas C. Coehran, The Pabst Brewing Company (New York: New York University Press, 1948); Ralph W. Hidy, The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance (Cambridge, Mass.: Har- vard University Press, 1949); Ralph W Hidy and Muriel E. Hidy, Pioneering in Big Business: History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), 1882-1911, 3 vols. (New York: Harper and Row, 1955); Ralph W Hidy, Frank Ernest Hill, Allan Nevins et al., Timber and Men: The Weyerhaueser Story (New York: Macmillan, 1973); Allan Nev- ins and Frank Ernest Hill, Ford, 3 vols.: Vol. I, The Times, the Man, the Company; Vol. 2, Expansion and Challenge, 1915-1933; and Vol. 3, Decline and Rebirth, 1933- 1962 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers, 1954-1962); Richard C. Overton, Burlington Route: A History of the B1lrlington Lines (New York: Knopf, 1965); Harold F Williamson, Winchester: The Cun That Won the West (Washington, D.C.: Combat Forces Press, 1952); Harold F Williamson and Kenneth H. Myers, Designed for Digging: The First 75 Years of Bucyrus-Erie Company (Evanston, Ill.: North- western University Press, 1955); and Harold F Williamson and Orange A. Smalley, Northwestern Mutual Life: A Century of Trusteeship (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1957). The volumes by Chandler and Salsbury, not strictly corporate histories in the same sense as the others, are included because they possess essential characteristics of the genre at its best. See also Howard F Bennett, Precision Power: The First Half Century of Bodine Electric Company (New York: Appleton-Century- Crofts, 1959); Boris Emmet and John E. Jeucks, Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears, Roebuck (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950); George S. Gibb, The Whitesmiths of Taunton: A History of Reed and Barton (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1943); George S. Gibb, The Saco-Lowell Shops: Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813-1949 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950); Ralph M. Hower, The History of an Advertising Agency: N. W Ayer 6 Son at Work, 1869-1949 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949); Ralph M. Hower, History of Macy's of New York, 1858-1919: Chapters in the Evolution of the

THE WRITING OF CORPORATE HISTORY * 65

Nevertheless, it is still safe to say that for every carefully researched and painstakingly written study of an important business enterprise, there are a great many more superficial accounts hastily prepared by journalists popularizers, or public relations departments, and that public understanding of the nature and history of American business is to a considerable degree formed by such productions. On the one hand, books or articles prepared in this manner may be simply puff jobs or institutional advertise- ments which carry little credence because of their highly uncriti- cal nature. On the other hand, they may also be muckraking efforts manifesting an animus against a firm and its leadership or against the private enterprise system itself. In either case, the need for a balanced, objective analysis of corporate development is ill served.3

The reasons for the relative scarcity of careful, in-depth corporate histories are not difficult to understand Business executives, naturally solicitous about the public image and reputation of their enterprises may fear that an objective account of a firm's evolution based upon unrestricted access to company records will disclose information they feel should best be kept private. Dis- trust of academicians, stemming partly from stereotypes or from the belief that much history has been written from a point of view implicitly critica] of business as a force in American life, may intensify this feeling. There may also be a concern that trade secrets will be revealed or information elicited that may complicate litigation or regulatory proceedings in which the company is involved. Even if these reservations are overcome, many companies routinely destroy potentially valuable records which they are no longer legally required to keep or which are taking up space needed for other purposes, and thus the very Department Store (Cambridgew Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1943); and Thomas R. Navin, The Whitin Machine Works Since 1831: A Texttle Machtnery Company in an Ind2xstrial Village (Cambridge, Mass+: Harvard University Press, 1950). The har- vest of company histories of this caliber in the 1970s has been disappointingly meager, but see Ralph D. Gray, Stellite: A History of the Haynes Stellite Company, 1912- 1972 (Kokomo, Indiana: Stellite Division of Cabot Corporation, 1974); Orange A. Smalley and Frederick D. Sturdivant7 The Credit Merchants: A History of Spiegel, Inc. (Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973); and John F Stover, History of the Illinois Central Railroad (New York: Macmillan, 1975). Our own Del- ta: The History of an Airline will be treated at some length later in this paper.

3. See Harold F: Williamson, ''The Professors Discover American Business," in Ross M. Robertson and James L. Pate, eds*, Readings in United States Economic and Busi- ness History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966), pp. 26-29.


basis for a scholarly study is lacking. Or if corporate records and manuscripts are retained in bulk, they are likely to be scattered about in inconvenient locations or housed in such a manner as to make their inspection and use difficult. Bringing them together under conditions conducive to professional research may seem to involve an outlay of company time and resources better invested in other ways.

From the scholar's point of view, it may not prove possible to secure the type of access to company records and the right to investigate and interpret them under conditions indispensable to the professional viability of the finished product. Even if this bar- rier is cleared, the company's records may be in such a state of disorganization and neglect, if indeed they have survived, as to make research difficult. If the firm is old, there may be considerable gaps in the materials which are available, making it hard to put together a consistent and coherent account of its development. In some cases, the problem may be exactly the opposite: the records may be so staggering in total volume, particularly if the firm is a large and important one, as to be intimidating to all but the hardiest and most dedicated researcher. It may require the services of a team of assistants to do justice to even a fair sampling of the materials available, particularly, as is often the case, when the resulting study must be produced within a given deadline so as to be in print by a significant anniversary date. The matter may be further complicated if the institution at which the scholar is professionally employed happens to be at some distance from the company headquarters, necessitating fre- quent travel or protracted leaves of absence from teaching and other academic responsibilities. For such reasons the writing of solid corporate history is often extremely expensive, usually requiring a sizeable grant of funds from the company itself. In the case of a company grant, it must be clear that there are no strings attached that will compromise the integrity of the scholar.

It is therefore easy to see why a company may think it prefera- ble to turn to its public relations department if a corporate history is desired, or to hire a journalist or free-lance writer who will not be too particular about the types of materials available for research or the conditions imposed upon their use. Similarly, it is not hard to understand how a curious writer from outside the organization, eager to produce a sensational expose or at the very


least a book with immediate sales appeal, may put together a work based upon newspaper and magazine articles, various public records, such interviews as may be obtainable, and other available sources without recourse to the company records which can alone provide a really accurate and comprehensive picture of the firm's development.

Despite all the difficulties involved, there are significant potential rewards both for a company and for the professional who undertakes to write its history based upon an agreement which provides free access to available corporate records and which in- sures scholarly integrity and objectivity. From the company's point of view, the resultant product will possess a credibility that is ultimately lacking from even the most skillfully conceived 4'inside job." The public demonstration by the company that it is not afraid to open its records to outside scrutiny and to support the writing of an objective account of its corporate past is in itself impressive testimony to its sense of self-worth and its confidence that in the final analysis it has nothing to hide. Although a company can do little or nothing to prevent a "muckraker>' from writing a work that presents its history in a distinctly less than favorable light, having a soundly researched, comprehensive and accurate volume in print may ultimately be a firm's best de- fense against this sort of misrepresentation.

It is evident, of course that a well-written corporate history can do a great deal to engender among a company's employees a legitimate sense of pride in its achievements and traditions. But a soundly-prepared work of this type, written by a competent professional, can have an even more important function. As Harold E Williamson has pointed out, "One of the most valuable assets of any business is never listed in its books of account, although it may be reflected in the market value of its stock. This unlisted asset is the experience of the organization's key executives." It is as important to a corporation as it is to an individual, Professor Williamson points out, to be able to benefit from past experience when making key policy decisions, but it is also easy to lose track of what has happened in the past, particularly if a firm's history extends back over a number of generations. In Williamson's apt words "Casual recollections are frequently inaccurate as time tends to magnify the decisions which were sound and minimize those which turned out badly. Myths about the organization's past


become accepted as reality." The firm with a competently written corporate history at its disposal is therefore at an advantage because it possesses a dependable memory bank which provides reliable information about how it dealt with crises, survived de- pressions, made wise decisions, and on occasion committed mistakes which it would do well to avoid in the future.4

No company) large or small, has gone through a history of any significant length, of course, without making mistakes, and this is something which corporate executives should keep in mind when considering the risk of laying bare its past to objective scholarship. To err, after all, is only human, but one can also learn from errors. This is the sort of benefit that is not likely to accrue from a "puff job," however skillfully contrived. It is because of such con- siderations that August C. Bolino, author of an informative essay on "The Businessman and Business History," has contended, "The obvious public relations and advertising advantages are greatly outweighed by the chief reasorl for the existence of business histories: that is, the management policies which emerge out of these histories and which serve as tools for effective future ad- ministration and organization of business."5

The reward to the scholarly community from the growing number of substantial business histories is equally great. Because of the enormous role which private enterprise has played in the development of American civilization and values, it is of obvious importance that the dynamics of the basic vehicle of business ac- tivity the individual firm be understood as fairly and accu- rately as possible. A very large body of scholarly historical writing already exists in which American business is examined from the outside, so to speak; for a fully comprehensive view it must also be examined from the inside, without losing objectivity but nevertheless having what Professor Williamson calls "a sympathetic understanding of the circumstances and reasons that led to major policy decisions by the management.'6 In this way one can study how a firm is born, perhaps as a creative response to a particular need in the community at large in a given historical setting, or perhaps as a way of capitalizing upon the possibilities

4. Ibid., pp. 31-32. 5. August C. Bolino, "The Businessman and Business History,'' in Robertson and

Pate, eds., Readings, p. 42. 6. Williamson, ''The Professors Discover American Business,'' loc. cit., pp. 29-30.


inherent in a significant scientific or technological breakthrough; how the company survives early challenges and adversities in the critical period of corporate infancy that wipes out many fledg- ling enterprises; how it responds to obstacles and impediments to its growth once the crucial initial stage has been successfully ne- gotiated; how it competes with other firms in the same field of endeavor; how organizational changes take place as the company's affairs become more complex; how it handles the problems inherent in dealing with government regulatory agencies; how it marshals the various resources human, material, finan- cial, and technological-upon which its livelihood depends; and so on. All of these stages and problems call for careful analysis, and the accumulation of case studies represented by individual business histories is gradually producing an increasingly solid em- pirical basis for a just understanding of the evolution of profit- seeking enterprises in American society.

Several characteristic benchmarks in the development of large business organizations may be singled out for particular attention at this point. One is the tendency for the successful company to absorb one or more of its competitors or fellow enterprises in a merger. Although this is a process full of the excitement that comes with growth and increasing economic power, it also poses problems of assimilation and various types of adjustments that are fascinating to study in detail, both from the perspective of the surviving corporation and that of the business entity that is being absorbed. In addition, the complex negotiations preceding a merger, the roleS if any, of government regulatory agencies whose approval may be necessary before it comes to pass, and the long-range impact of the merger upon the larger firm which emerges from the process are all matters full of interest to the scholarly investigator. Our own study of the history of Delta Air Lines, which during the course of its growth and development acquired two other enterprises Chicago and Southern (1953) and Northeast Airlines (1972), is a case in point. Both mergers involved prolonged negotiations, complex proceedings before the Civil Aeronautics Board, and painstaking efforts successful in both cases- to meld previously separate organizations into an effective consolidated business unit. The merger with Chicago and Southern (C & S) in particular had a considerable impact upon the future of the surviving corporation for many of its top execu-


tives in recent years came originally from the smaller company and brought C & S's own distinctive approach to management with them into the expanded organization.7

Consummating a merger, particularly with a firm of any considerable size, obviously represents a major milestone in the ongoing life of a corporation. But the normal course of the development of any business enterprise is punctuated with individual decisions on all sorts of matters which cumulatively and collectively spell the difference between profit and loss, and ultimately between success and failure. Tracing the course of these decisions, the input upon which they were based, the discussions and debates which took place, the personalities which were involved, and the ultimate results which occurred is one of the most intriguing and instructive tasks of the business historian. In the case of Delta, for example, a particularly difficult decision was reached in the late 1950s to bypass the acquisition of tur- boprop planes and move directly from piston-driven to jet-pro- pelled aircraft; it turned out very fortunately for the company but there were considerable misgivings while the matter was being resolved. Another key decision, reached earlier, involved having three qualified pilots in the cockpit of each large Delta plane, one of whom served as a pilot-engineer, rather than two pilots and a flight engineer without pilot training. In the short run Delta's approach was more expensive than the other alterna- tive, which was chosen by most airlines. In the long turn, however, it avoided bitter labor disputes which plagued a number of Delta's competitors in the 1960s and thus proved to be a wise move despite the early inconveniences involved.8

This example illustrates Professor Williamson's observation that careful business histories help bear out "the importance of other variables than those traditionally used by economists in evaluating business operations," particularly static cost-price-out- put formulas which do not make sufficient allowance for other pertinent factors.9 In Delta's case, the decision to use pilot-engineers rather than mere flight engineers resulted from the keen

7. W. David Lewis and Wesley Phillips Newton, Delta: The History of an Airline (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1979), pp. 211-43, 366-86.

8. Ibxd., pp. 236-37, 307-8. 9. Williamson, ''The Professors Discover American Business," loc. cit., p. 33.


psychological insight of the company's long-time chief executive and patriarch, C. E. Woolman, who saw that it was bad policy to "put a board on a man's head" in other words, to put a flight engineer into a cockpit with two other persons into whose posi- tions he could never aspire to move. Over the years Delta's success as the airline industry's most consistently profitable carrier has owed a great deal to the company's extreme sensitivity to "people-oriented" issues and its dedication to pursuit of what the firm likes to call a "family feeling" among its employees at- tributes initiated and fostered by Woolman. One of the potential rewards of business history is the manner in which it can trace the evolution of a distinctive managerial style, frequently at- tributable to an entrepreneur who stamps an enterprise with the imprint of his own personality, as was certainly the case with Delta. 10

In a brief essay we can merely suggest certain scholarly rewards to be gained from the pursuit of business history and can- not pretend to offer a comprehensive list. No account of the lessons to be learned from research in this area, however, should neglect the classic work of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., whose book Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Indus- trial Enterprise (1962) is a landmark in the development of the discipline. Basing his conclusions on a careful analysis of the experience of four giant enterprises Du Pont; General Motors; Sears, Roebuck; and Standard Oil of New Jersey Chandler shows how the centralized, functionally departmentalized ad- ministrative structure characteristic of the late nineteenth century proved inadequate to the demands imposed by changing market conditions in the twentieth century and was ultimately replaced by a "decentralized, multidivisional structure" that has become increasingly the norm for industrial firms. Although not a company history in the strict sense of the term, Chandler's bril- liant synthesis exemplifies the type of generalizations which can be gained from creative research in company records.ll

We hope this brief analysis has sufflciently demonstrated the potential rewards of scholarly business history both for the firm sponsoring such a project and for the academic community. In conclusion we will suggest the type of arrangements under which

10. Lewis and Newton, Delta, passim. 11. Chandler, Strategy and Structure, pp. 1-17 and passim.


a study of this type should be carried out.l2 The core of the matter is the willingness of the enterprise to realize that in dealing with professional historians there must be a full acceptance of the demands of scholarly objectivity and integrity. Without such as- surance the project should not be commenced. Authority for the selection and interpretation of the materials used in producing the study should rest with the professionals carrying it out. The resulting manuscript should be theirs, and they should have the right to choose the publisher.

On the other hand, the legitimate interests of the firm to pro- tect itself from the disclosure of information that might be harm- ful to its current business operations, as for example by revealing trade secrets or sensitive data relevant to ongoing litigation or government regulatory proceedings, are evident. A good way of dealing with this problem is to establish a "cut-off date" after which a full historical account will stop. If a final chapter is included to carry the account up to the present, it may be based by mutual agreement on a limited range of materials. In addition, company offlcials may reserve the right to request fuller docu- mentary proof by authors of any statements whose factual ac- curacy may be questioned, or to present additional evidence that may alter an author's current position on a particular issue. In cases where the company's and the authors' interpretations of the facts may involve an irreconcilable difference, provision may be made for "equal space" in the published work in which the firm's viewpoint may be related along with that of the authors.

The company should make its employees aware that a professional history of the firm is being written and cooperate with the writer in arranging interviews with personnel whose recollections and experiences may play a highly important role in the final published account. In addition, adequate facilities should be provided for the authors to proceed with their work. In some cases, as in our own experience with Delta Air Lines, it may prove possible to transfer limited quantities of company records to a university library or archives to facilitate convenient access to them.

12. The remarks that folloxv, building upon the general guidelines suggested in Williamson, ''The Professors Discover American Business,'' p. 34, reflect our own experience in writing a history of Delta Air Lines during the 1970s and the guidance which we received from Professor Williamson throughout the project, for which we are extremely grateful.


Alternatively, an office may be provided at the headquarters of the company itself.

The funding of the project is obviously of key importance. In the case of our own study, funds were granted by the Delta Air Lines Foundation to Auburn University to support the writing of the book and were dispensed in accordance with the University's normal accounting and accountability procedures. In some cases a company may provide the funds and work facilities for a faculty member to take a leave of absence in order to shorten the time involved in the project by the scholar's devoting full attention to the task.

In order to establish clear-cut lines of communication, an of- ficer of the company should be designated as the liaison between the authors and the firm. The identity of this person is of great importance; quite obviously he should be sympathetic to the project and have the stature that will convey to personnel throughout the company organization the importance of the ven- ture. (In our own case, for example, the Delta Air Lines offlcial who played this role was Richard S. Maurer, then Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs and currently Vice Chairman of the Board.) Provision for review of the manuscript by this person or other company officials should be made, with assurances of its return to the authors in a reasonable amount of time. Similarly, assuming that the authors are faculty members at a college or university, an official of the institution they represent may be designated as liaison, should circumstances require, between the authors and the company. This person might be a Dean or the Vice President for Research. In addition, it might be helpful, if a university has an ongoing program encouraging faculty members to take part in the writing of business history, to establish a commit- tee of faculty members, university officials, and distinguished persons from outside the institution to provide overall supervision for activities carried on under its aegis

As has been suggested earlier in this paper, many company histories are produced with the commemoration of a significant anniversary in mind. Our own study, for example, was written as part of a series of projects and activities associated with Delta's fiftieth anniversary as a passenger carrier. In such a case the authors may formally agree to do everything possible to have the book in print by a given deadline, and the company on its part


will commit itself to doing everything possible to facilitate this. The importance of adequate lead time in this regard is, of course, obvious; in our own case, the process of research, writing, and publication, performed along with teaching and other responsibilities at Auburn University, took approximately six years.

Finally, although this may not be necessary in all cases, the authors and the company should reach a preliminary understanding concerning the style in which the history is to be written. In our case Delta desired a book that could be read with interest and pleasure by a nonacademic audience, without im- pairing its scholarly value. We therefore committed ourselves to a style of writing consistent with this aim. It may be desirable also to specify the approximate length of the book that is ultimately desired, making due allowance for the imponderables that inev- itably exist before the actual process of research is carried out. In any case, the company should agree that access to its records prior to the agreed-upon cut-off date will be unrestricted, and that it will do everything possible to locate and make all such records available.

Writing a corporate history of the type described here is an arduous and demanding project, requiring the highest dedication and best efforts on the part of everybody concerned. In our experience, however, it has been a process full of personal and professional satisfactions. We live in a society in which most people spend a large proportion of their lives working for organizations of one sort or another, with business corporations comprising a very high percentage of the total. For this reason alone, in addition to the overwhelming importance of the corporation in American society, the story of these crucial entities deserves to be told, and told well. This paper will have served its purpose if it helps facilitate that aim.

Article Contentsp. 63p. [62]p. 64p. 65p. 66p. 67p. 68p. 69p. 70p. 71p. 72p. 73p. 74

Issue Table of ContentsThe Public Historian, Vol. 3, No. 3, Business and History (Summer, 1981), pp. 1-192Front Matter [pp. 1-5]Introduction [pp. 6-9]The Business Historian's OfficeThe Office of Corporate Historian: Organization and Functions [pp. 10-23]The Corporate History Department: The Wells Fargo Model [pp. 24-29]Corporate History and the Corporate History Department: Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company [pp. 30-39]

Writing Business HistoryHistory inside Business [pp. 40-61]The Writing of Corporate History [pp. 62-74]Corporate History: Why? [pp. 75-80]Collecting and Writing ARCO's History [pp. 81-84]RemarksOn Writing a Company History [pp. 85-86]

Applications of Historians' SkillsPolitical Assessment in International Firms: The Role of Nontraditional Specialists in Business Organizations [pp. 87-94]Historians and the Law [pp. 95-100]Historians and Corporate Consulting [pp. 101-103]RemarksOn the Contribution of History to Business [p. 104]On Corporate Records Management [pp. 104-105]

Training Business HistoriansAmerican Business History: A British Perspective [pp. 106-119]Business Careers and the Undergraduate History Curriculum [pp. 120-128]The Newcomen Society in North America [pp. 129-131]Retooling the History Ph.D.: Careers in Business Programs [pp. 132-136]Careers in Business ProgramsCareer Opportunities Institute: University of Virginia [pp. 137-138]Careers in Business: University of Texas [p. 138]The Wharton School: University of Pennsylvania [p. 139]Careers in Business Program: New York University [pp. 139-140]Scholars in Transition: The Institute for Research in History [pp. 140-141]The Maine Council on Economic Education [pp. 141-143]

The Future of Business HistoryHedgehogs and Foxes: Historians in Management [pp. 144-152]Business History Has a Future [pp. 153-159]

Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 160-162]Review: untitled [pp. 163-165]Review: untitled [pp. 165-169]Review: untitled [pp. 169-172]Review: untitled [pp. 172-173]Review: untitled [pp. 173-176]Review: untitled [pp. 176-179]Review: untitled [pp. 179-182]Review: untitled [pp. 182-185]

Book NotesReview: untitled [p. 186]Review: untitled [p. 187]Review: untitled [pp. 187-188]

Back Matter [pp. 189-192]

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Lewis and Netwon - Writing Corporate History