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American Historians and the Business Elite

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  • Miller, William

Abstract

One might have supposed that historians, largely occupied as they have been with the activities of ruling classes, would have been among the first to study systematically the problem of the recruitment and tenure of elites. This problem is an especially interesting one in a country such as the United States which has had no official caste systems and no legally established hereditary hierarchies. Yet most American historians have shied away from it. Few of them have even raised questions about the locus and transmission of power or status in modern times. Moreover, those who have discussed in particular the ascent of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century business leaders have tended to attribute their success simply to the possession of more shrewdness or trickiness or more pluck or luck or other private qualities than competitors who failed to rise; the very few historians who have considered social determinants such as family background or work experience have, by stressing the alleged values of poverty or of starting business in boyhood, placed their emphasis, as we shall see, quite at the opposite pole from where it belongs.

Suggested Citation

  • Miller, William, 1949. "American Historians and the Business Elite," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 184-208, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:9:y:1949:i:02:p:184-208_06
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    Cited by:

    1. Luca Fiorito & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2019. "Frank W. Taussig and Carl S. Joslyn on the social origins of American business leaders. A chapter in the history of social science at Harvard," Department of Economics University of Siena 810, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    2. Elise S. Brezis & François Crouzet, 2004. "The Role of Higher Education Institutions: Recruitment of Elites and Economic Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 1360, CESifo.
    3. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    4. Brezis, Elise S., 2010. "Globalization and the Emergence of a Transnational Oligarchy," WIDER Working Paper Series 005, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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