Art and business are often described as worlds apart, even diametric opposites. And yet, these realms are close cousins in creative industries where firms bring cultural goods to market, attaching price tags to music, paintings, theater, literature, film, and fashion. Building on theories of value construction and cultural production, Culture and Commerce details the processes by which artistic worth is decoded, translated, and converted to economic value. Mukti Khaire introduces readers to three industry players: creators, producers (who bring to market and distribute cultural goods), and intermediaries (who critique and rave about them). Case studies of firms from Chanel and Penguin to tastemakers like the Pritzker Prize and The Sundance Institute illuminate how these professionals construct a vital value chain. Highlighting the role of "pioneer entrepreneurs"—who carve out space for radical, new product categories—Khaire illustrates how creative professionals influence our sense of value, shifting consumer behavior and our culture in deep, surprising ways.

While historians have explored the impact on workers of changes in American business, the broader impact on other cultural forms, and vice versa, has not been widely studied. This anthology contributes to the debate at the intersection of business history and the study of cultural forms, ranging from material to visual culture to literature.

Sibao today is a cluster of impoverished villages in western Fujian. But from the late 17th-early 20th centuries, it was home to a flourishing publishing industry supplying south China through itinerant booksellers. Brokaw describes this rural, low-level operation, tracing how Sibao's socio-geographical character shaped its progress.

This is the definitive social and economic analysis of the current state and future trends of the American book publishing industry, with an emphasis on the trade, college textbook, and scholarly publishing sectors. Drawing on a rich and extensive data, the thoughtful analysis presented in this book will be valuable to leaders in publishing as well as the scholars and analysts who study this industry.

This volume presents a collection of interrelated essays by international scholars working on the relationship between commerce and culture from c. 1750 to the early-twentieth century. Considerable attention has recently been focused on the importance of social networks and business culture in reducing transaction costs, both in the pre-industrial period and during the nineteenth century, and these essays underline the centrality of this across a broad international setting. As such the volume provides an important addition to the available literature in this field and will attract a wide readership amongst business, cultural, maritime, economic, social and urban historians, as well as historical anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists whose research embraces a longer-term perspective.

The Culture and Commerce of the Short Story is a cultural and historical account of the birth and development of the American short story from the time of Poe. It describes how America - through political movements, changes in education, magazine editorial policy and the work of certain individuals - built the short story as an image of itself and continues to use the genre as a locale within the realm of art where American political ideals can be rehearsed, debated and turned into literary forms. While the focus of this book is cultural, individual authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Edith Wharton are examined as representative of the phenomenon. As part of its project, this book also contains a history of creative writing and the workshop dating back a century. Andrew Levy makes a strong case for the centrality of the short story as a form of art in American life and provides an explanation for the genre's resurgence and ongoing success.

This work examines a trade that covered the backs of sailors and soldiers, that shirted labouring men and skirted working women, that employed legions of needlewomen and supplied retailers with new consumer wares. Garments, once bought, returned again to the marketplace, circulating like a currency and bolstering demand. The agents in this trade included military contractors for clothing, female outworkers and dealers in used clothes. Each was affected by a changing demand for new-styled 'luxuries' and necessities in apparel.

Attending a live concert or theatrical performance can be a thrilling experience. At their best, the performing arts represent the height of human creativity and expression. But the presentation on stage, whether it is Shakespeare, Beethoven, or The Lion King, depends on a business backstage. This book provides an overview of both the product on stage and the industry that makes it possible. While the industry’s product is unique—with unique supply and demand characteristics—it is still an industry, with supply inputs, organization structures, competitors, business models, value chains, and customers. We will examine each of the major segments (Broadway, regional theater, orchestra, opera, and ballet) along these business dimensions. This book will give lovers of the performing arts an understanding of the business realities that make live performances possible. Managers, board members, and performers will be better equipped to take on the strategic challenges their companies face. People contemplating any of these roles will have a better idea of what to expect. Business analysts and students of strategy will discover how economic frameworks apply in this unique setting where culture and commerce converge.

The Ming dynasty was the last great Chinese dynasty before the Manchu conquest in 1644. During that time, China, not Europe, was the center of the world: the European voyages of exploration were searching not just for new lands but also for new trade routes to the Far East. In this book, Timothy Brook eloquently narrates the changing landscape of life over the three centuries of the Ming (1368-1644), when China was transformed from a closely administered agrarian realm into a place of commercial profits and intense competition for status. The Confusions of Pleasure marks a significant departure from the conventional ways in which Chinese history has been written. Rather than recounting the Ming dynasty in a series of political events and philosophical achievements, it narrates this longue durée in terms of the habits and strains of everyday life. Peppered with stories of real people and their negotiations of a rapidly changing world, this book provides a new way of seeing the Ming dynasty that not only contributes to the scholarly understanding of the period but also provides an entertaining and accessible introduction to Chinese history for anyone.