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LangloisRichard J.. The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023. 816pp. ISBN: 978-0-691-24698-7, $50 (cloth).

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2025

Alexander J. Field ,
Brian R. Cheffins ,
Laura Phillips-Sawyer ,
Naomi R. Lamoreaux  and
Daniel M.G. Raff
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Extract

In 2023, Princeton University Press published Richard Langlois’s The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise. It is a book of comparable mass to Alfred Chandler’s 1977 The Visible Hand and equally ambitious.1 The erudition is vast. (The bibliography alone runs 78 closely-printed pages. There are 122 pages of equally closely-printed footnotes to the 522-page main text whose own font is not large.) A production such as this seemed worth more than the usual traditional-form reviews, and in the September following its publication, the Penn Economic History Forum put on a symposium to discuss it. Interest was widespread: attendance in the room was agreeably substantial and came from far beyond the seminar’s usual catchment area, and there were requests for the Zoom link to the proceedings from around the world. (The expense was not vast and the ratio of impact to expense was almost certainly favorable relative to ordinary seminars. The economic history community might not suffer from putting on more such events when suitable occasions arise.)

Type
Book Review Forum
Information
Enterprise & Society , First View , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Business History Conference

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Bank, Steven A., and Cheffins, Brian R.. “The Corporate Pyramid Fable,” Business History Review 84 no. 3 (2010): 435–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berle, Adolf A., and Means, Gardiner C.. The Modern Corporation and Private Property, New York: Macmillan, 1932.Google Scholar
Braudel, Fernand. Trans. Reynolds, Siân. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr.. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheffins, Brian R. The Public Company Transformed, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheffins, Brian R. Advanced Introduction to Corporate Governance Law and Regulation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLong, J. Bradford. 2022. Slouching Toward Bethlehem: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Easterbrook, Frank, and Fischel, Daniel R.. The Economic Structure of Corporate Law, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Fama, Eugene F. “Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm,” Journal of Political Economy 88 no. 2 (1980): 288–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Alexander J. “Modern Business Enterprise as a Capital-Saving Innovation,” Journal of Economic History 47, no. 2 (1987): 473–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Alexander J.. The Economic Consequences of U.S. Mobilization for the Second World War, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John Kenneth. American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1952 (rev. ed. 1956).Google Scholar
Jensen, Michael C., and Meckling, William H.. “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure,” Journal of Financial Economics 3, no. 4 (1976): 305–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Michael C. “The Eclipse of the Public Corporation,” Harvard Business Review 67, no. 5 (1989): 61–73.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Daniel, M.G. Raff, and Temin, Peter. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History,” American Historical Review 108, no. 2 (2003): 404–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Daniel, M.G. Raff, and Temin, Peter. “Against Whig History,” Enterprise & Society 5, no. 3 (2004): 376–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langlois, Richard N. “Contract, Competition, and Efficiency,” Brooklyn Law Review 55, no. 3 (1989): 831–845.Google Scholar
Langlois, Richard N.. “The Corporation is Not a Nexus of Contracts: It’s an iPhone,” in eds. Gagliardi, Francesca and Gindis, David, Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2019: 142–156.Google Scholar
Langlois, Richard N.. The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023.Google Scholar
Lerner, Abba. “Design for a Streamlined War Economy,” History of Political Economy 45, no. 4 (2013): 623–645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raff, Daniel M.G. “How to Do Things with Time,” Enterprise Society 14, no. 3 (2013): 435–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohatyn, Felix. Dealings: A Political and Financial Life, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.Google Scholar
Weitzman, Martin L. “Prices vs. Quantities,” Review of Economic Studies 41, no. 4 (1974): 477–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yago, Glenn. “Ownership Change, Capital Access, and Economic Growth,” Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 7, no. 2–3 (1993): 205–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Business Week, 16 November 1987.Google Scholar
Bank, Steven A., and Cheffins, Brian R.. “The Corporate Pyramid Fable,” Business History Review 84 no. 3 (2010): 435–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berle, Adolf A., and Means, Gardiner C.. The Modern Corporation and Private Property, New York: Macmillan, 1932.Google Scholar
Braudel, Fernand. Trans. Reynolds, Siân. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr.. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheffins, Brian R. The Public Company Transformed, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheffins, Brian R. Advanced Introduction to Corporate Governance Law and Regulation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLong, J. Bradford. 2022. Slouching Toward Bethlehem: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Easterbrook, Frank, and Fischel, Daniel R.. The Economic Structure of Corporate Law, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Fama, Eugene F. “Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm,” Journal of Political Economy 88 no. 2 (1980): 288–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Alexander J. “Modern Business Enterprise as a Capital-Saving Innovation,” Journal of Economic History 47, no. 2 (1987): 473–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Alexander J.. The Economic Consequences of U.S. Mobilization for the Second World War, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John Kenneth. American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1952 (rev. ed. 1956).Google Scholar
Jensen, Michael C., and Meckling, William H.. “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure,” Journal of Financial Economics 3, no. 4 (1976): 305–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Michael C. “The Eclipse of the Public Corporation,” Harvard Business Review 67, no. 5 (1989): 61–73.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Daniel, M.G. Raff, and Temin, Peter. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History,” American Historical Review 108, no. 2 (2003): 404–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Daniel, M.G. Raff, and Temin, Peter. “Against Whig History,” Enterprise & Society 5, no. 3 (2004): 376–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langlois, Richard N. “Contract, Competition, and Efficiency,” Brooklyn Law Review 55, no. 3 (1989): 831–845.Google Scholar
Langlois, Richard N.. “The Corporation is Not a Nexus of Contracts: It’s an iPhone,” in eds. Gagliardi, Francesca and Gindis, David, Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2019: 142–156.Google Scholar
Langlois, Richard N.. The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023.Google Scholar
Lerner, Abba. “Design for a Streamlined War Economy,” History of Political Economy 45, no. 4 (2013): 623–645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raff, Daniel M.G. “How to Do Things with Time,” Enterprise Society 14, no. 3 (2013): 435–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohatyn, Felix. Dealings: A Political and Financial Life, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.Google Scholar
Weitzman, Martin L. “Prices vs. Quantities,” Review of Economic Studies 41, no. 4 (1974): 477–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yago, Glenn. “Ownership Change, Capital Access, and Economic Growth,” Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 7, no. 2–3 (1993): 205–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Business Week, 16 November 1987.Google Scholar