Slavery, Freedom and Business Endeavor

'Bowden's book provides a provocative prism through which to view western civilization and capitalism. It reveals Bowden's understanding of the freedom and courage required to defend and sustain the values upon which the survival of modern society depends: individualism, democracy, economic and political liberalism. With the growing ascendency of social movements that prioritize group-based identities over individual achievement, his powerful warning about the "milletization" of society is more urgent than ever.'

--Art Bedeian. Louisiana State University and founding member of Management History Division, Academy of Management

This book argues that the modern iteration of western civilization is profoundly different to earlier versions. Assuming definitive shape around 1850, the new civilization differed from every culture that came before it. Whereas earlier civilizations were caught within a "Malthusian" trap that subjected most to a life of misery, the new versionof western civilization was associated with material plenty. Whereas slavery was previously endemic in both the Old and New Worlds, after 1850 the new civilization drove it to near extinction. Freedom and individualism were its hallmarks.

The author postulates that it is lived experience that primarily defines a civilization. It is thus apparent that western civilization is now a global civilization. Every society has been shaped by it in terms of business, work and home life. Constantly, however, the individualist values at its core have come under threat. Increasingly, we witness what the book calls the "milletization" of society, whereby individuals obtain their identity from this or that "identity" group in ways akin to Ottoman Turkey's "millet" system, in which each person was assigned to a particular "millet". Across its pages, the book offers fundamentally new understandings of western civilization and how it was reforged by business endeavor.

Bradley Bowden is Professor at Griffith University and Fellow at the Institute for Public Affairs. He is a Past Chair, Management History Division of the Academy of Management and Co-editor of the Journal of Management History. Past works include Work, Wealth, and Postmodernism and the edited, Palgrave Handbook of Management History.

Auteur

Bradley Bowden is Professor of Employment Relations at Griffith University, Australia. He is currently Executive Member and Past Chair of the Management History Division of the Academy of Management. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Management History. His past works include Work, Wealth, and Postmodernism: The Intellectual Conflict at the Heart of Business Endeavour and the edited collection, Management History: Its Global Past and Present.

Texte du rabat

This book argues that modern Western civilization is synonymous with business, and you cannot have one without the other-or, at least, not for very long. Without Western civilization, with its emphasis on inquiry, questioning, experimentation, reasoning, freedom of expression, a free press, equality of opportunity before the law-then the innovation and vitality that lies at the heart of Western business success, evaporates. Without business endeavor, all the ideas and inquiry are materially meaningless. The author postulates that only through business opportunity is the wealth created that allows a continuation of our society's intellectual endeavors. Further, the world of modern business-a unique creation of Western civilization, even if it has witnessed many regional and national adaptations-is also the actual place where inequalities are overcome and opportunities created. It is through the world of business and work that women have, for example, achieved something approaching equality with men, to a degree unprecedented in human history. This book will offer scholars a research-based argument that Western civilization owes its existence to business rather than Greco-Roman antiquity.

Contenu

Introduction: the different and competing definitions of Western civilization.o This will be an extensive introduction that can also act as a standalone essay that will (a) summarize the current debates as to what is Western civilizations and the deep divisions as to its benefits (b) explain why we regard all current enunciations as inadequate and why "Western civilization" should be regarded as a fundamentally new phenomenon that is a creation of the New World as well as the world; a global rather than a European phenomenon. Part 1: Foundations, Linkages and Ruptures. This part will explore the following:o The legacies of the Greco-Roman world: In considering the legacy of the Greco-Roman world its intellectual bequests should not be understated. Our understandings of democracy, of representative government, and of the very concept of citizenship as a relationship based on legal rights and responsibilities we owe to antiquity. However, if we should not understate the intellectual legacy of the Greco-Roman world, neither should we exaggerate its significance. In the final analysis, the Greco-Roman world was a failed civilization. Its failures were, overwhelmingly, managerial and economic. Its principal means of wealth creation was militarized theft, depriving other societies of not only their possessions but also their people. The Romans themselves well understood these facts, Tacitus (c.AD98 / 1942: 695) placing into the mouth of a British chieftain the following words: "Our goods and fortunes they [the Romans] collect for their tribute, our harvests for the granaries. Our very hands and bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses." A society based on such principles was never one that was going to be characterized by entrepreneurship, innovation, and the swift take-up of new technologies. In consequence, humanity's economic and social advance necessarily entailed Rome's ruination. The productive advances of the feudal era:o Although there is a tendency to regard medieval feudalism as a poor substitute for the Greco-Roman civilization of antiquity, in terms of commerce and rural productivity the medieval world was infinitely superior to its classical antecedent. Unlike ancient Chinese societies, and those of Medieval Europe, Rome never developed the skill and capacity to cast iron; a short-coming that ensured a deficit of metal goods, most particularly in the agricultural sector. In agriculture, the absence of the heavy, wheeled-plough that became standard in Medieval Europe made working the rich but heavy soils of Northern Europe's valley bottoms well-nigh impossible during antiquity. A range of crops that became dietary staples in the medieval era - rye, oats, millet, hard durum wheat with its high protein content, rice, sugarcane, lemons, oranges - were other notable absentees. The Greco-Roman world never invented the wind-mill, which was capable of operating a larger motor than the water-mills of either antiquity or Medieval Europe. The Roman world also operated without either mechanical clocks or magnetic compasses. On the maritime front, the Greco-Roman world was also inferior. Unlike medieval shipwrights, who constructed a ship by first laying down its keel and ribbed frame before attaching the planking, their Greco-Roman predecessors did the reverse. Only when the planking was all laboriously assembled did the Greeks and Romans choose to install the internal frame. By comparison with the triple-masted cargo ships of the early modern era, the single-sailed ships of antiquity were small affairs, their limited cargo capacity restricting trade and, hence, possibilities for regional specialization in production. Despite all of these positive achievements that distinguish medieval society from antiquity we nevertheless argue that medieval feudalism cannot be regarded as a component part of our modern Western civilization;…