Customer Reviews

The Entrepreneurial Adventure: A History of Business in the United States

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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Most American historians know much more about economics than a rose-nose mole---but a good deal less than Dyak from backwoods Borneo. So it is that most American History texts, even if otherwise quite passable, incorporate economic wisdom fully formulated by about 1898 and embalmed for the ages sometime around 1938. Larry Schweikart's volume, by contrast, possesses real vitality. It is not only superior to all easily available US history texts, it is also superior to almost all texts I have had occasion to examine. The Entrepreneurial adventure is clearly written and full of interesting insights and anecdotes. It is about real human beings doing real things: from Lydia Pinkham to John D. Rockefeller, Sr. It is not about the suffering "masses" and suchlike academic effigies.

I am the author, and Richard Panton is right with many of his comments. I eagerly await the opportunity to revise this in light of some of the 1999 (when the final editing was done)-present developments. About the only one I would seriously revise is that I expected the tech sector, even with the down turn of 1999, to come back sooner. I still think it will, but there are important structural barriers that have not yet been solved, including "last-mile" hookups, the final disposition of the Bell/Baby Bell cases, lingering effects of the Microsoft lawsuit, and the intervention of world terrorism.

I hope to get the chance to start a new edition very soon.

Mr. Schweikart has written a useful text for students of American business or American history, but it is dated. Closing out pre-9/11, the stage Schweikart sets is not the one we must now act on. If a new edition were to be published, some of his conclusions and theories would need to be revised or at least expanded to address current issues in business and world affairs. It would also be nice to see a co-author to provide counterpoint to Schweikart's biases - my observance of which which is not intended to be anything more than an aknowledgement of human nature. Overall, a refreshing look at the development of the greatest economy on the planet. I only wish it had been written in 2003.

This book has some interesting and informative aspects. However, it is deeply flawed by the author's "Christian" point of view. The USA has entrepreneurs that are Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Luteran, Baptist, and atheist, as well as every other religion and philosophy imagineable. So, it is just ridiculous and biased to highlight those entrepreneurs that profess a certain strain of the Protestant Christian religion.