The Business of History

Reviews / Votes

"Libraries are crowded with books attempting to define the attributes of a successful business, capable of enduring decades, let alone centuries. This book has done something refreshingly different. Levitt offers lessons and analysis from the past and warnings for the future, a 'warts and all' account of the titans of business spanning some 200 years. The companies that will be written about in another century, I believe, will be the ones that embrace their purpose, giving back more than they take, rejecting 'business as usual'. Those that don't will be consigned to the graveyard of dinosaurs. CEOs would be wise to reflect upon the lessons in this book." - Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever

"What stands out for me in Tom Levitt's fascinating new book is how great Victorian companies, a few of which have survived to this day, saw themselves and acted more or less as 'social' enterprises. And that was long before governance, environment and corporate social responsibility obligations had to be introduced to tame the behaviour that excessive adherence to the late-twentieth-century concept of 'shareholder value' had encouraged." - Professor Vicky Pryce, former joint head of the UK Government Economic Service

"This enjoyable journey through the history of some prominent British businesses - some still household names, many no longer in independent existence - is full of both drama and insight. There are lessons here for the future of today's companies in an era of technological transformation and climate change." - Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge

"It is far too simplistic to label all businesses as destroyers of nature or engines of social injustice, ignoring the positive contribution from enlightened, innovative and responsible businesses. This book revisits the the history of UK business, providing a new baseline with which to evaluate today's business world environment, drawing out fascinating insights while providing recommendations to inspire and shape a better world." - Professor Ian Thomson, Chair in Accounting and Sustainability, School of Business, University of Dundee

"As a business school academic, one theme in this fascinating book made for very uncomfortable reading. Levitt suggests that the main impact of UK business schools on firms has been to help institutionalize neo-classical economic thought and its derived management practices. Some of the fateful outcomes of that process are well illustrated in the book. It should prompt my colleagues in business schools to reflect on what we've been part of, what our purpose is, and how we need to change business schools to reflect this." - Professor Martin Kitchener, FCIPD FLSW FAcSS, Cardiff Business School