McCraw Thomas K. Prophet of Innovation

Prophet of Innovation. Prophet of InnovationListen to a short interview with Thomas McCraw/Host: Chris Gondek/Producer: Heron & Crane. Pan Am, Gimbel"s, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland - all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. "Creative destruction", he said, is the driving force of capitalism. Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most sophisticated conservative" of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril - to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter"s view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind. During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times.From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983 - the centennial of the birth of both men - Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate. "Prophet of Innovation" is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were the conflicts between his reason and his emotions. Drawing on all of Schumpeter"s writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world"s greatest economist, lover, and horseman - and admitted to failure only with the horses. * Preface * Part I: L"Enfant Terrible, 1883--1926: Innovation and Economics * Prologue: Who He Was and What He Did *1. Leaving Home *2. Shaping His Character *3. Learning Economics *4. Moving Out *5. Career Takeoff *6. War and Politics *7. Gran Rifiuto *8. Annie *9. Heartbreak * Part II: The Adult, 1926--1939: Capitalism and Society * Prologue: What He Had Learned *10. New Intellectual Directions *11. Policy and Entrepreneurship *12. Between Two Worlds *13. Harvard *14. Suffering and Solace * Part III: The Sage, 1939--1950: Innovation, Capitalism, and History * Prologue: How and Why He Embraced History *15. Business Cycles, Business History *16. Letters from Europe *17. To Leave Harvard? *18. Against the Grain *19. The Courage of Her Convictions *20. Alienation *21. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy *22. War and Perplexity *23. Introspection *24. Honors and Resurgence *25. Toward the Mixed Economy *26. History of Economic Analysis *27. A Principle of Indeterminateness *28. L"Envoi * Epilogue: The Legacy * Notes * Acknowledgments * Illustration Credits * Index This well-paced and beautifully written book explains not only Schumpeter"s work but also the fast-changing phenomenon of modern capitalism. McCraw brings out Schumpeter"s energy and charisma as well as the power of his ideas, quite skillfully linking the economist"s colorful and adventurous personal life with the development of his views. This book is a fine tribute to a great thinker. -- Harold James, Princeton University A welcome book-a truly penetrating biography of the most influential theorist of finance capitalism. -- Edmund S. Phelps, 2006 Nobel Laureate in Econo Forfattere: Thomas K. McCraw Utgave: ukjent Språk: Engelsk Sidetall: 736 ISBN: 9780674034815 Vekt: 1328 g Forla Harvard University Press Innbindin Heftet Utgitt: 2009 Veil. pris: 0 kr Kategori: Biografier