Company town: The very phrase sounds un-American. Yet company towns are the essence of America. Hershey bars, Corning glassware, Kohler bathroom fixtures, Maytag washers, Spam — each is the signature product of a company town in which one business, for better or worse, exercises a grip over the population. In The Company Town, Hardy Green, who has covered American business for over a decade, offers a compelling analysis of the emergence of...

"As technology and innovation become more and more valuable, government agencies like the FBI and companies around the world are growing increasingly concerned -- and are increasingly outspoken about -- the threats posed to Western competitiveness. The Scientist and the Spy explains how the easy movement of experts and ideas affects development and the important role that espionage plays in innovation, both for the spies and the spied-upon. She also...

"A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation's origins to the present day"-- Examine any phase of our nation's struggle to define itself, and artisans are there: from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today's "maker movement." Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education,...

"Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. If you're one of these people, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful one, to learn how it's done." "But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses...

What makes the Net great is also precisely what makes it so dangerous. The virtual world is becoming so similar to the real one that some think the overt laws, or at least agreed-upon rules, may be necessary for the Net to survive in its current open form. If the internet can be ruined by everything from criminals to overzealous politicians responding to those criminals, then how can it be saved? We explore this issue in Release 2.0: Issue 3. Other...

Mitchell explains why American businesses today are obsessed with the price of their stock. The author identifies the moment in American history when finance triumphed over industry, and shows how the birth of the giant modern corporation spurred the rise of the stock market.

It may be hard to believe in an era of Walmart, Citizens United, and the Koch brothers, but corporations are on the decline. The number of American companies listed on the stock market dropped by half between 1996 and 2012. In recent years we've seen some of the most storied corporations go bankrupt (General Motors, Chrysler, Eastman Kodak) or disappear entirely (Bethlehem Steel, Lehman Brothers, Borders). Gerald Davis argues this is a root cause...

Is a widening "skills gap" in science and math education threatening America's future? That is the seminal question addressed in The U.S. Technology Skills Gap, a comprehensive 104-year review of math and science education in America. Some claim this "skills gap" is "equivalent to a permanent national recession" while others cite how the gap threatens America's future economic, workforce employability and national security. This much is sure: America's...