Slavery, Freedom and Business Endeavor
The Reforging of Western Civilization and the Transformation of Everyday Life
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Beschreibung
‘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.
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.
Distinguishes “Western civilization,” based on industrialization, free-market capitalism, political democracy Explores the relationship between civilization, business and climate Engages current debates about modernity
Autor*in
Bradley Bowden
Themen in »Slavery, Freedom and Business Endeavor«
Greco-Roman antiquity Industrial Revolution technology commerce capitalism globalization technological innovation
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"For those wishing to understand how modern civilization, especially how capitalism became a dominant theme in the west, this book is invaluable. Professor Bowden explores, explains and provides credible alternatives to existing thought paradigms around the concepts of how ‘we’ arrived at the present. His narrative is at once thought provoking and entertaining." [--Andrew Cardow (Past Division Chair of the Management History Division, (2021- 2022) Academy of Management)]
"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.]
"Bowden's work on Western Civilization reveals the genesis of modern business culture. This work is built on a lifetime of erudition and is packed with insights. Bowden's work is something both critics and supporters of capitalism and modern business need to consider." [--Jeffrey Muldoon, Emporia State University and Executive Member, Management History Division, Academy of Management.]
"Australians are ineradicably heirs to and beneficiaries of the ideas, institutions and values of western civilization, and in age of wilful misrepresentation and relentless denigration of that legacy Bradley Bowden performs a magnificent service for humanity, highlighting the force of the West’s animating genius and the unprecedented prosperity it brought to the modern world from the late 18th century onwards." [--Scott Hargreaves, Executive General Manager, Institute for Public Affairs, Australia.]
"An electrifying work. The reader is dragged – sometimes kicking and screaming - to a confronting realisation: whatever the problems faced by the 21st century`s ordinary people, the roots of such problems are not to be found in the forces that spawned and shaped Western civilisation. To suggest otherwise is the intellectual equivalent of sawing of the branch upon which one is highly perched because a tree limb provides an uncomfortable place of repose. If we are to have mandated mask-wearing for the unvaccinated, then this book should be mandated reading for the unaware." [--Anthony Gould, Laval University (Quebec) and Editor-in-Chief, Relations Industrielle / Industrial Relations]
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