Edison and the Business of Innovation (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) [Paperback]

André Millard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1993 | Series: Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology (Book 10)

This is the story of the "other" Thomas Edison—not the heroic lone inventor, but Edison the businessman, industrialist, and successful manager of one of the world's largest industrial research laboratories. Tracing his career from his boyhood to his death in 1931, Edison and the Business of Innovation reveals Edison to be an entrepreneur of extraordinary vision. From extensive research in the Edison archives at West Orange, New Jersey, Andre Millard presents new information about Edison the businessman and provides new interpretations of old issues.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An informative business history, illuminating Edison the businessman, industrialist, and manager, showing why he succeeded in some areas and failed in others and how he 'straddled the craft culture of the preindustrial age and the industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century'

(Journal of American History 2008)

Millard modestly calls this book 'an advance party crossing the vast stretches of the Edison archives.' That it may be, yet his analysis of the rise and decline of the West Orange laboratory is not likely to be superseded.

(American Historical Review )

For anyone wishing to expand, in an accessible yet scholarly way, his or her understanding of this uniquely American icon, this is an excellent point of departure.

(Matthew Hill Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society )

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801847303
• ISBN-13: 978-0801847301
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,069,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars R&D in the age of innovation, January 28, 2007

By 

Lehigh History Student (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Edison and the Business of Innovation (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) (Paperback)

This book works to cover the evolution of research and development within the American corporation. Borrowing from the understanding of Alfred Chandler it tracks through the machine shops days of free flowing ideas to building up a business based on the innovations developed in R&D. This is not a biography on the life of Edison but it is a biography on his business ventures. While not going into exhausting detail it is possible to see what developed in the Edison labs at the end of the Gilded Age. The companies that survived through the panics and great depressions were those that had their own R&D centers (GE, Westinghouse, RCA, ect). Their efforts at creating a mass production system that could handle all of these new inventions is followed from the stories in this book. The Old Man (Edison) is truly the father of so many inventions that are all chronicled here. The book goes through those that became a success such as generators and phonographs or the ones that became a failure such as the Ore separation business. The drive with which Edison entered all of these businesses was amazing and well worth looking at in further detail. This is a great book for those who just want an overview of the age of innovation.