Courteous Capitalism

Public Relations and the Monopoly Problem, 1900-1930
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4214-4734-6
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 700 g

Reihe: Hagley Library Studies in Business, Technology, and Politics

A provocative history of how corporate titans in the 1920s used a massive public relations campaign to transform public opinion on big business.

In the early twentieth century, as Americans erupted in righteous indignation over the flagrant abuses of big business, utility executives faced an existential crisis. With calls for strict regulation or outright government ownership of utilities, how could streetcar, electricity, and telephone executives thwart municipal ownership, rein in regulation, and secure huge profits?

In Courteous Capitalism, Daniel Robert reveals how utility executives answered this question by launching the largest nongovernmental public relations campaign the nation had ever seen. In part, this campaign encouraged managers to compel their clerks to exude "courtesy," "sunshine," and "patience" toward customers. Rather than bribe the few, executives would convert the many using a combination of emotional labor and improved customer service. At the same time, executives organized the widespread manipulation of the press, schools, radio, and movies.

At once a labor history of clerks and a social history of consumers, Courteous Capitalism offers an intriguing new argument for why a major reform goal of Progressives faded and why Americans changed their minds regarding corporate monopolies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Robert, Daniel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Unternehmensgeschichte, Einzelne Branchen und Unternehmer
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Courteous Capitalism Begins
2. Courteous Capitalism Intensifies
3. The Architecture of Consent
4. Customer Stock Ownership as Corporate Political Strategy
5. Making the News
6. Subverting Civics
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Robert, Daniel
Daniel Robert is a historian who specializes in American history, business history, and the history of science and technology.