Americana - a 400-year history of American capitalism

Inbunden bok. Penguin Press New York. 2017. 560 sidor.

Nyskick. Skyddsomslag i nyskick. PRESENTSKICK. På engelska.
From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. AMERICANA takes us on a journey of this spirit of innovation through a series of Next Big Things – the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking to flight, surburbia, and sneakers,culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The result is a thrilling alternative history of modern America that reframes the events, trends, and people we thought we knew through the prism of the value that, for better or for worse, this nation holds dearest: capitalism.
In a winning, accessible style, Bhu Srinivasan boldly takes on four centuries of American enterprise and reveals the unexpected connections that link them. We learn how Andrew Carnegie ´s early job as a telegraph messenger boy paved the way for his leadership of the steel empire that would make him on of the nation´s richest men; how the gunmaker Remington reinvented itself in the postwar years to sell typewriters; how the inner workings of the Mafia mirrored the trend of consolidation and rfegulation in more traditional business; and how a 1950s infrastructure bill triggered a series of events that produced one of Americas most enduring brands: KFC. Reliving the heady early days of Sillicon Valley, we are reminded that the start-up is an idea as old as America itself. Wirh a deft toruch, Srinivasan sets countless entrepreneurial stories against a complex, ever-shifting backdrop of social, cultural, and political forces that shaped American business.
Entertaning, eye-opening, and sweeping in its reach, AMERICANA is an exhilarating new work of narrative history.