American business people have built the most creative and productive economy in world history. Here is the story of the men and women who made America - from Pilgrim traders to pioneers of the Industrial Revolution and the great innovators of the early twentieth century.

What does it mean to be an American? What are American ideas and values? American Enterprise, the companion book to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, aims to answer these questions about the American experience through an exploration of its economic and commercial history. It argues that by looking at the intersection of capitalism and democracy, we can see where we as a nation have come from and where we might be going in the future. Richly illustrated with images of objects from the museum’s collections, American Enterprise includes a 1794 dollar coin, Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone, a brass cash register from Marshall Fields, Sam Walton’s cap, and many other goods and services that have shaped American culture. Historical and contemporary advertisements are also featured, emphasizing the evolution of the relationship between producers and consumers over time. Interspersed in the historical narrative are essays from today’s industry leaders—including Sheila Bair, Adam Davidson, Bill Ford, Sally Greenberg, Fisk Johnson, Hank Paulson, Richard Trumka, and Pat Woertz—that pose provocative questions about the state of contemporary American business and society. American Enterprise is a multi-faceted survey of the nation’s business heritage and corresponding social effects that is fundamental to an understanding of the lives of the American people, the history of the United States, and the nation’s role in global affairs.

"Douglas Brinkley and American Heritage have done a grand job. This is a first-rate book: fair, clear, and enormously welcome." - David McCullough "Douglas Brinkley's one-volume history is a riveting narrative of unique people who have come to call themselves American. There is no dust on these pages as the author brilliantly tells our national story with skill and brevity." In this rich and inspiring book, acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes thirteen small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent, and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.

American business people have built the most creative and productive economy in world history. Here is the story of the men and women who made America - from Pilgrim traders to pioneers of the Industrial Revolution and the great innovators of the early twentieth century.

Presents an alphabetically-arranged reference to the history of business and industry in the United States. Includes selected primary source documents.

This three-volume set concludes ABC-CLIO's groundbreaking series on the Industrial Revolution as it played out in the United States, offering volumes on the communications industry and the agriculture and meatpacking industries—plus a concluding overview volume on the causes, courses, and interconnections among the industries that brought such dramatic change to our lives. The concluding three-volume set in ABC-CLIO's landmark Industrial Revolution in America series offers vivid reminders of how this economic renaissance changed virtually every facet of American life. Communications takes readers from the telegraph to the telephone and beyond, showing how improvements in communication (aided by better transportation) helped create a truly national marketplace. Agriculture and Meatpacking details the shift of agriculture from family farms and local trade to mass production and agribusiness, sparking the development of a full range of farm machinery and spawning the rise of a new metropolis practically overnight. The concluding Overview/Comparison volume looks at the Industrial Revolution as a whole—revealing the impact of various industries on each other and gauging the revolution's broader social and political legacy in the United States and around the world.

An introduction to film history, this anthology covers the history of film from 1895. It is arranged chronologically, and each chapter contains an introduction on the key developments within the period. Various types of film history are undertaken to enable students to become familiar with different types of film historical research.