Customer Reviews

American Entrepreneur: The Fascinating Stories of the People Who Defined Business in the United States

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This book is a strong example of how in today's world we longer see economic problems through the scope of "Austrian Economics." While the stories in this book may be very one-sided at times (aka Lincoln supposedly having built the transcontinental railroad to increase his real-estate assets) it is definitely a must read for students interested in economic policy and how government decisions are made from monetary incentives. This book discusses reasons for why the central bank was made, political entrepreneurs (greedy politicians) v market entrepreneurs (innovators), and how projects that benefit politicians are often disguised as "public interest spending."

Given that it was written by two college professors, I get the feeling that it was written primarily as a textbook for their students (and an extra way for them to make money off of their positions). I love profiles and hoped that it provide wise, well-researched insights on a variety of great American entrepreneurs. Instead, it just provides a historical explanation of the business environment that allowed entrepreneurship to flourish. It doesn't really tell me anything new that I didn't already know; it just says it a lot more words and points to other people, aka academics, who have also said the same thing. For example, the US Constitution allowed business enterprises to flourish since it prohibited states from exacting commercial barriers to protect their own constituents.

Bottom line: I feel like I'm reading a lengthy grad school thesis rather than an enjoyable, informative book about actual entrepreneurs. If it weren't on clearance at the borders, I would take it back for a refund.

We chose this book because it was inspiring and provided a historical account of how the United States became the launching pad for many of the world's greatest companies. Anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur should read this book because it reminds everyone that you can come from any background and start an enterprise at any age. Government officials at all levels that are considering laws that would restrain free enterprise would benefit from reading this book because it will remind them why we need to fight to perserve and nuture the world's greatest innovation and job creator. It's a story that I am sure leaders in other countries have read and try to emulate. Lastly, I also teach a class in entrepreneurship at Drexel University and I have mad this book required reading.

My college began using Larry's prior book, "Entrepreneurial Adventure" as the freshman introductory text to business a few years ago. Our students liked it
(faculty didn't because it lacked the teaching aides that come packaged with most texts, which interestingly did not bother the adjuncts). EA has gone out of print. "American Entrepreneur" was reported to be the next edition, with increased coverage of the late 20th century and up to date through the housing & banking crises of '08-'09.

With the new publisher comes a revised format. Gone are the sidebar stories of unique individuals in US business history, along with all of the illustrations and graphics. The people stories are now woven throughout the main text, so they are not lost. Several students have read both EA and AE and they report that the older book was an easier read. I find little difference, and AE is definitely a higher quality book.

I highly recommend "American Entrepreneur" for anyone who has come through an American public school system. It relates the story of business and government in America in a unique and useful way. It is unabashedly capitalist in outlook and tenor, making a wonderful counterpoint to the teachings of most public institutions. Is it biased? Of course it is, just differently than other biased viewpoints. Before any American is allowed to vote, they should read AE's side of our history.

I hope that in 2015 or so there is a 3rd issue of the story, looking at the culmination of the current economic recovery. It can review the new interactions of business, government and entrepreneurs and hopefully show that capitalism remains alive and well in the American spirit, perhaps convincing future American leaders to cultivate that spirit, not constrain it.

This is a fat book filled with "the fascinating stories of the people who defined business in the United States." This is not a motivational book. It is not a book of business advice. It is a book of business history.

So if you're interested in learning about entrepreneurship or if you're seeking ideas for how to improve your business, this is not the book for you. But if you enjoy American history or business history, you may want this book on your shelf.

But there's a problem. Either this is a work of business history that's too long. Or it's a collection of the "fascinating stories of the people who defined business in the United States" that's too short.

As a work of business history, tracing entrepreneurship from Colonial times to the present, the book is too long. It's filled with short bits about individuals that are fascinating in themselves, but that don't move the story of business forward.

On the other hand, if this is meant to be a collection of stories of individual entrepreneurs in roughly chronological order, the book needs to be much longer. Hardly any of the entrepreneurs get much coverage. And they're profiles, not stories.

Malcolm McLean, for example, deserves more than he gets. McLean invented the shipping container. The story is fascinating. It's been the subject of two books and a Harvard case study.

In this book, McLean and the entire "story" of the container system that changed the world gets one, historically-inaccurate paragraph. It's less than the coverage in Wikipedia.

Henry Heinz gets a bit more coverage, but the authors concentrate on his use of free samples in marketing. They don't note that one of Heinz' challenges was to get people who made their own pickles to trust a faceless manufacturer. They don't mention his innovations in distribution. But it's hard to get than all into three paragraphs.

Some people you expect to be in the book are among the missing altogether. Estee Lauder is one example. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are two others.

It's hard to credit a history of entrepreneurs that ignores Brin and Page and their company, Google. Instead, the authors concentrate on Yahoo.

Yahoo is not an entrepreneurial story at all. It's the story of two grad students, who came up with something everyone wanted to use almost by accident. They didn't' start out to create a business. And when people under the sway of the Dot-Com Craze gave them money, they managed to have a strategy-less company for almost a decade.

Google, by contrast, was started with the idea of being a business. At least at the time of writing the book, it has been one of the most successful start-ups in history. But the Google story isn't anywhere in this book.

The fact is that very few actual stories get told. Some stories like those of Apple and Wal-Mart get spread over a number of scattered pages. Some, like the story of Amazon are reduced to a paragraph or two. And others like those of Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Home Depot don't get told at all.

The bottom line: the only reason to buy this book is that it covers a lot of material. If that's OK with you, great, otherwise, give it a pass.