In The Capitalist Philosophers, critically acclaimed writer Andrea Gabor tells the epic story of American business through the lives, times, and ideas of the great thinkers who defined the art and science of business. Featured in The Capitalist Philosophers are Peter Drucker, Frederick Taylor, W. Edwards Deming, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, Robert McNamara, and many more. As Andrea Gabor notes in her Introduction, "Contrary to common wisdom, it is possible for individuals to have a major impact on history. Just as FDR and Margaret Sanger changed the way we think about, respectively, politics and sexuality, so the capitalist philosophers have changed the way we look at the dominant institution in our society--the corporation."
Editorial Reviews
A "sweeping account of management in the 20th century." --Publishers Weekly
"An illuminating look behind the scenes at the people who shaped modern management and gave us the corporation we know and love--or know and reject--today. Andrea Gabor's engrossing stories of yesterday's big thinkers provide essential insights for tomorrow's business leaders, helping them find enduring truths in all passing fads and fancies." --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, author of World Class
"Andrea Gabor has mined the lives and times of a dozen seminal figures--from Deming and Drucker to Maslow and McNamara--who have constructed our concepts of corporate management and capitalist enterprise. Through brilliant portraits of their personal lives and professional ideas, Gabor has created a compelling account of how these capitalist philosophers have not only interpreted reality but also managed to define it." --Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Leadership Moment and Leading Up
"The well-balanced portraits examine the personal and intellectual developments of the capitalist philosophers and show how these thinkers affected big companies for good and bad. . . . [Andrea Gabor] has a good eye for the revealing details that both guided and limited her thinkers' ideas." --Harvard Business Review
"A thoughtful and important history of seminal thinkers who shaped--and continue to shape--the theory and practice of management." --Warren Bennis, University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and co-author of Co-Leaders
About the Author
Andrea Gabor is the author of The Man Who Discovered Quality and Einstein's Wife. She has been a senior editor at U.S. News and World Report and a staff editor in corporate strategy and technology at Business Week. Gabor has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and is currently a professor at Baruch College/CUNY.
