The most vehement and persistent controversy in business history has been that waged by the critics and defenders of the “robber baron” concept of the American businessman. Far from being a pedantic exercise, this controversy has at various times exerted a decisive influence on business itself. The origins, spread, and obsolescence of the concept are traced here, together with the merits and failings of currently predominant historical attitudes.

This study is an attempt to reconstruct the history of a medieval company on the basis of the extant fragments of its account books, the only surviving records. Despite the incompleteness of the data, it was possible to reach important conclusions and to show that the continued existence of a medieval firm depended on the same factors as today: coordination, efficient management, and effective control. The records also shed interesting light on personnel relations, adjustment to new trends, and the attitude of the merchants toward the Church.

The potential advantages of the South over New England as a textile manufacturing region were recognized early in the nineteenth century, but it remained to be proved whether the disadvantages were insuperable. The success of a few mills like the Augusta Manufacturing Company provided the necessary precedent and inspiration, and precipitated the migration of an entire industry. The process of recording this episode is in itself of interest, for the pertinent company records have long since disappeared.

In the years between 1913 and 1928 public accounting evolved from a relatively obscure and limited practice to full maturity as a respected and flourishing profession. The present article deals with these years in some detail, expanding a shorter survey published in the Business History Review in June, 1956. The period from 1928 to 1951 is dealt with in detail in an article in the December, 1956, issue.

Historians of the entrepreneur and of the firm encounter great difficulty in finding comparative data against which to measure their subject. Empirical studies such as this one, dealing in broad yet specific terms with the ebb and flow of enterprise in a community, provide a workable guide to what constitutes typical patterns of business development.

Historians have awaited with great interest a new endeavor to tell the story of business in America — not in a narrow or technical way, but broadly related to the social environment of which business is one part. Economic historians, business historians, sociologists, and many other specialists have gathered extensive data on phases of business behavior, and are continuing to do so at a commendably prolific rate. The job of synthesis, however, has been neglected, perhaps because of its formidable demands. No two scholars would be likely to agree on the content and emphasis of any volume, such as the one reviewed here, that describes the development of American business. This circumstance does not detract from either the usefulness of the effort or the value of the criticism. The increasingly specialized nature of scholarship demands both the stimulus of a general thesis and wide reactions to that thesis if historical perception is to be kept abreast of accumulating evidence.