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Business History: Some Major Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Clarence C. Walton
Clarence C. Walton
Affiliation:
Professor of Business Institutions and Associate Dean, At Columbia Graduate School of Business
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Extract

Substantial gains made within the past score years in clarifying the nature and scope of business history afford ample grounds for confidence that this academic youngster will assuredly develop into a vigorous adult. Such high optimism can be sustained, however, only if this small guild of practitioners develops and administers appropriate intellectual booster shots necessary for its continued health. At the moment it does appear that business history is vulnerable to a large number of afflictions. To put the matter more specifically, business historians as a group give the impression of being sharply divided on issues where agreement might reasonably be expected at this stage of the field's development. Signs of a recent shift from emphasis on decision-making, innovation, and administration to a stress on a vaguely defined “general environment” fueled concern.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 36 , Issue 1: Business History Conference Issue Dedicated to Henrietta M. Larson , Spring 1962 , pp. 21 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1962

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References

1 [Italics mine.] Gordon, Robert A. and Howell, James E., Higher Education for Business (New York, 1959), pp. 170–171.Google Scholar The companion piece to the Ford Study was the Carnegie-sponsored inquiry directed by Pierson, Frank C., et al., The Education of American Businessmen (New York, 1959).Google Scholar Even before the appearance of these studies many institutions had initiated self-studies. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has detailed reports in mimeographed form but has made no public distribution. On the other hand, Columbia has released a very interesting book of Senkier, Robert, Revising a Business Curriculum — The Columbia Experience (New York, 1961).Google Scholar

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