Summary

This two-volume, A-to-Z encyclopedia provides detailed coverage of America’s business history, from the Hudson fur trade to the Internet. More than 400 lively, informative entries profile corporate titans and tycoons, Wall Street wizards, industry leaders, and major events and institutions of American business—spanning the period after American independence to the present day.

Each entry is accompanied by a short bibliography and is cross-referenced to related entries, enabling readers to pursue the topic further. An introduction offers a general account of the topic, and a chronology helps readers place events into historical context. Selected primary documents, a general bibliography, and an index round out this important reference.

Entries include:

• American Telephone & Telegraph
• Warren Buffett
• The computer industry
• Walt Disney
• Thomas A. Edison
• Henry Ford
• General Electric Co.
• Howard Hughes Jr.
• International Business Machines
• Steven Jobs
• Lehman Brothers
• Motion picture industry
• New York Stock Exchange
• Office machines
• Pan American Airlines
• Railroads
• John D. Rockefeller
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Sears, Roebuck & Co.
• Slavery
• Martha Stewart
• Telegraph
• United Automobile Workers
• Cornelius Vanderbilt
• Eli Whitney
• and more.

Specifications

Black-and-white photographs and illustrations. Index. Bibliographies. Cross-references. Chronology. In two volumes.

About the Author(s)

Charles R. Geisst received his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics and currently holds an endowed chair of Business at Manhattan College. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Wall Street: A History and Monopolies in America: Empire Builders & Their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates.