Business History

Little Jeff Pearce grew up in a postwar Liverpool slum. His father lived the life of an affluent gentleman whilst his mother was forced to steal bread to feed her starving children. Life was tough, and from the moment Jeff could walk he learned to go door to door, begging rags from the rich, which he sold down the markets. Leaving school at the age of 14, he embarked on an extraordinary journey and found himself, before the age of 30, a millionaire. Then, after a cruel twist of fate left him penniless, he, his wife and his children were forced out of their beautiful home.

Pietro D’Arcangelo's journey began in the coal mines of Berwind-White and culminated in the heartwarming atmosphere of his own pizzeria. Born in Abruzzo, Italy, Pietro's dream wasn't just to escape the harsh life of a coal miner but to bring a piece of his homeland to America. "A Story About Pizza" delves into the rich history of Italian immigration and the merging of Italian and American cultures through the beloved dish of pizza. Erica D’Arcangelo weaves a narrative that spans generations, sharing her grandfather Pietro's dream, struggles, and triumphs. From the bustling streets of ...

George Washington had Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson had Albert Gallatin. From internationally known tax expert and former Supreme Court law clerk Gregory May comes this long overdue biography of the remarkable immigrant who launched the fiscal policies that shaped the early republic and the future of American politics. Not Alexander Hamilton - Albert Gallatin. To this day, the fight over fiscal policy lies at the center of American politics.

Here is a bold new history of economics, the dramatic story of how the great economic thinkers built a rigorous social science without peer.

Since 2001, the US Department of State has been sending hip hop artists abroad to perform and teach as goodwill ambassadors. There are good reasons for this: Hip hop is known and loved across the globe, acknowledged and appreciated as a product of American culture. Hip hop has from its beginning been a means of creating community through artistic collaboration, fostering what hip hop artists call building.

Medieval people are often portrayed as having poor hygiene and table manners—licking their knives or throwing chicken bones on the floor. In the Middle Ages, however, such behavior was not tolerated. Medieval society cherished order in nearly every facet of life, from regular hand-washing to daily prayer. There were consequences if you didn’t adhere to the rules of good behavior: you wouldn’t be invited to the lord’s next dinner, you wouldn’t win the battle, and you wouldn’t win the lady.

An innovation expert illuminates why your power to make a difference is no longer bound by your status. In The Power of Onlyness, Nilofer Merchant, one of the world's top-ranked business thinkers, reveals that we have now reached an unprecedented moment of opportunity for your ideas to "make a dent" on the world.

Sometimes designed objects reject their users: a computer mouse that doesn't work for left-handed people, for example, or a touchscreen payment system that only works for people who read English phrases, have 20/20 vision, and use a credit card. These mismatches are the building blocks of exclusion. In Mismatch, Kat Holmes describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion.

He likens spiritual awakening to waking up for the day. Our Old ideas are similar to the dream world of sleep. Sobriety and spirituality are the real world we wake up to. He talks about spiritual awakening in historic terms. How Rowland Hazard found out from Dr. Carl Jung that he would need a spiritual awakening to recover from alcoholism. Sandy talks at length about Dr. Carl Jung and the importance of spirituality for happiness, contentment, and sobriety.

This timeless text is required listening for any business person or athlete interested in strategy. It includes a soundtrack entitled "The Mysterious Sound of Wind In the Bamboo", a 43-minute collection of Zen-inspired Japanese music by the Matsu Take Ensemble.

In Volume 2 of Women Innovators: Leaders, Makers and Givers Tamara Patzer has conversations with: Marlene Stokes, Dr. Amber Robins, MD, Jennifer Jane Clark, Cindy Marvin, Kate Bourland, Anna Vanlandingham, Win Kelly Charles and Que Jackson. Look for new volumes of the Women Innovators series soon.

We live in a period of leadership in crisis. At home, and across the globe, we sense that unqualified and irresponsible individuals are being elevated to positions of power, strong men and autocrats are consolidating their hold on governance, and the people are losing faith in the prospect of a better future. How have we arrived at this point? And how can we correct our course? For the past decade, Moshik Temkin has challenged his students at Harvard University and around the world to grapple with the nature of leadership. Now, Temkin refashions the classroom for a wider audience.

In Tangled Webs, James B. Stewart reveals in vivid detail the consequences of the perjury epidemic that has swept our country, undermining the very foundation of our courts.With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, Tangled Webs goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff. Tangled Webs reaffirms the importance of truth.

Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a surreal journey into the creative industry, where she must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Featuring dialogue from anonymous interviews with real people who have all had to ask themselves the same question – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a recluse, a Venice Biennale fraudster, a communist messiah, a ghost, and a literal knight – The White Pube tell the story of art like never before.

In the past, investors mostly wrote checks and attended board meetings. More recently, they’ve built elaborate support systems to assist the tech start-ups they back. But a next-generation tech incubator goes even further—it engages with start-ups at every stage of growth. These incubators develop deep connections across the ecosystem, enabling not just direct investments but also co-investments. They also build powerful support systems, including marketing teams that can thrive in competitive, open-market environments.

Listen and be inspired by the soothing baritone of award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti as he reads George Samuel Clason's classic The Richest Man in Babylon. Unless you were born wealthy or hit the lottery, this audiobook can be your path to financial security and success. The parables set in ancient Babylon and originally published in 1926 are as applicable today as they were in ancient times.

The Sunday collection in every Catholic church throughout the world is as familiar a part of the Mass as the homily and even Communion. There is no doubt that historically the Catholic Church has been one of the great engines of charity in history. But once a dollar is dropped in that basket, where does it go? How are weekly cash contributions that can amount to tens of thousands of dollars accounted for? Where does the money go when a diocese sells a church property for tens of millions of dollars?

From New York Times business reporter Nelson D. Schwartz comes a gripping investigation of how a virtual velvet rope divides Americans in every arena of life, creating a friction-free existence for those with money on one side and a Darwinian struggle for the middle class on the other side.

Molly McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer who used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education.

He wasn’t always the Great Showman. In fact, Phineas Taylor Barnum grew up in relative poverty with only his wits to help him along. When his father died, the 15-year-old boy entered the working world as a shopkeeper’s assistant. In leaps and bounds, he worked his way from assistant to shop owner, lottery office owner, and, eventually, entertainment promoter. The bulk of his career was focused on his beloved American Museum, where thousands of ticket holders flocked every day to look at the human oddities, stuffed animals, live whale, and American memorabilia.