The Business of Halloween
Trick-or-treating is big business! There are upwards of 18,000 companies worldwide in the chocolate and candy manufacturing industry, responsible for an estimated 889,000 jobs (IBISWorld). In the United States alone, non-chocolate confections have an estimated market size of $14.2 billion (Mintel). To learn more about the history of chocolate, candy, and the companies at the center of this industry, check out these books available on the shelves at Pardee or online through the BU Libraries Catalog.
More interested in tricks than treats? Want to crunch some spooky numbers? Explore Investopedia's report on Halloween's impact on the global economy, or read about the frightening economics of running a haunted house, and check out our selection of books on (haunted?) dolls, zombie banks, and more spine tingling titles. Happy Halloween from the Pardee staff!
Featured Reading: Candy Capital
NECCO: An Epic Candy Tale
Location: Pardee Display Table
A roll of Necco wafers has been described as the "indestructible candy," and for 171 years its originator, the New England Confectionary Company (Necco), seemed just as indestructible. From its start in 1847 with the invention of the first American candy machine, the company prevailed through two world wars, the Great Depression, and countless trends, changes, and setbacks to become the longest-running candy company in US history until its sudden and tragic closing in 2018. A giant from its inception, Necco operated out of huge factories considered marvels of 20th century industrial American achievement. For decades the company boasted a product line of 500-700 varieties of candy with its famous Necco Wafers reigning as the perennial top seller. With generations of families working together to produce every confection imaginable, Necco was a New England institution, landmark, and source of pride. Extensively researched, this book is the complete history of Necco and its family of brands from the 19th through the 21st centuries. This is an epic tale of the American candy industry, the people who made it happen, and everyone who enjoyed those sweet treats of childhood.
The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars
Location: Pardee Display Table
Corporate candy giants Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars built business empires out of one of the world's most magical, sought-after substances: chocolate. In The Emperors of Chocolate , Joël Glenn Brenner--the first person to ever gain access to the highly secretive companies of Hershey and Mars--spins a unique story that takes us inside a world as mysterious as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Packed with flavorful stories and outrageous characters that give the true scoop on this real-life candyland, The Emperors of Chocolate is a delectable read for business buffs and chocoholics alike. Start reading and you'll soon be hungry for more.
Pez: From Austrian Invention to American Icon
Location: Online
The world's one-and-only PEZ historian dispenses fun facts on the candy's evolution from smoking substitute to childhood treat to pop culture collectible. PEZ is an American classic and a staple of many childhood memories. Yet it originated in Austria, where PEZ began in 1927 as compressed peppermint tablets marketed as an alternative to smoking. Upon arrival in the United States in 1952, PEZ quickly took a new direction, adding fruit flavors and three-dimensional character heads to top the dispensers. Now produced in Orange, Connecticut, the iconic PEZ brand is available in over eighty countries, selling more than sixty-five million dispensers annually and inspiring collectors and fans worldwide. Join the world's first and only official PEZ historian, Shawn Peterson, on a journey of sweet proportions for an inside look at the world's most cherished interactive candy.
Candy Capital
- NECCO : an Epic Candy Tale by
A roll of Necco wafers has been described as the "indestructible candy," and for 171 years its originator, the New England Confectionary Company (Necco), seemed just as indestructible. From its start in 1847 with the invention of the first American candy machine, the company prevailed through two world wars, the Great Depression, and countless trends, changes, and setbacks to become the longest-running candy company in US history until its sudden and tragic closing in 2018. A giant from its inception, Necco operated out of huge factories considered marvels of 20th century industrial American achievement. For decades the company boasted a product line of 500-700 varieties of candy with its famous Necco Wafers reigning as the perennial top seller. With generations of families working together to produce every confection imaginable, Necco was a New England institution, landmark, and source of pride. Extensively researched, this book is the complete history of Necco and its family of brands from the 19th through the 21st centuries. Savor the stories behind the invention of Necco Wafers, Sky Bar, Canada Mints, Mary Jane, Sweethearts, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rolo, Candy Buttons, Slap Stix, and the Clark Bar. On these pages you will find hundreds of rare and amazing images that tell Necco's story and create a visual tour of package design and advertising from the 1890s-2010s. This is an epic tale of the American candy industry, the people who made it happen, and everyone who enjoyed those sweet treats of childhood. If you are a candy lover, collector, historian, or enthusiast of classic design, 'Necco-an epic candy tale' serves up a delicious assortment of candy history - the ups, the downs, and everything in-between
Location: Pardee Stacks TX784 .L34 2022Publication Date: 2022
Pez : from Austrian invention to American icon by
The world's one-and-only PEZ historian dispenses fun facts on the candy's evolution from smoking substitute to childhood treat to pop culture collectible. PEZ is an American classic and a staple of many childhood memories. Yet it originated in Austria, where PEZ began in 1927 as compressed peppermint tablets marketed as an alternative to smoking. Upon arrival in the United States in 1952, PEZ quickly took a new direction, adding fruit flavors and three-dimensional character heads to top the dispensers. Now produced in Orange, Connecticut, the iconic PEZ brand is available in over eighty countries, selling more than sixty-five million dispensers annually and inspiring collectors and fans worldwide. Join the world's first and only official PEZ historian, Shawn Peterson, on a journey of sweet proportions for an inside look at the world's most cherished interactive candy.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2016The economics of chocolate (1st ed.) by A comprehensive and up-to-date analysis on the economics of chocolate written by global experts. It covers the history of chocolate, the organization of the industry, geographic analyses of market developments, consumer choice, policies, and regulatory issues.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2016
Hammond's Candies : History Handmade in Denver by
In 1920, Carl T. Hammond founded his company with a commitment to quality. He single-handedly developed recipes, sold candy and handled everything else required to run the small operation. Nearly a century after that humble beginning, Hammond's Candies still clings to that original vision, creating prized confections by hand. The Mitchell Sweet, first introduced in the 1930s, is still a top seller, and visitors touring the factory can view the original machinery being used in production. Author Corky Thompson traces the history and growth of this family-owned company from 1920 until its sale at the end of the twentieth century and follows its transition under new ownership to the present time.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2014
Sweet As Sin: The Unwrapped Story of How Candy Became America's Favorite Pleasure by
There's more to candy than its sugary taste. As this delightful book shows, candy has a remarkable history, most of it sweet, some of it bitter. The author, a food historian and candy expert, tells the whole story, from the harvesting of the marshmallow plant in ancient Egypt to the mass-produced candy innovations of the twentieth century. Along the way, the reader is treated to an assortment of entertaining facts and colorful characters. These include a deposed Mexican president who ignited the modern chewing gum industry, the little-known son of a slave woman who invented the sugar-processing machine still in use today, and the Native Americans who created an important food by mixing fruit with dried meat. The name of the product was pemmican. The author traces humanity's changing palette over the centuries as roots, barks, and even bugs were savored. She surveys the many uses of chocolate from the cacao bean enjoyed by Olmec Indians to candy bars carried by GIs in World War II. As she notes, many candies are associated with world's fairs and other major historical events. Fun and informative, this book will make you appreciate the candy you love even more and help you discover new treats.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2016
In Chocolate We Trust: The Hershey Company Town Unwrapped by
In Chocolate We Trust takes readers inside modern-day Hershey, Pennsylvania, headquarters of the iconic Hershey brand. A destination for chocolate enthusiasts since the early 1900s, Hershey has transformed from a model industrial town into a multifaceted suburbia powered by philanthropy. At its heart lies the Milton Hershey School Trust, a charitable trust with a mandate to serve "social orphans" and a $12 billion endowment amassed from Hershey Company profits. The trust is a longstanding source of pride for people who call Hershey home and revere its benevolent capitalist founder--but in recent years it has become a subject of controversy and intrigue. Using interviews, participant observation, and archival research, anthropologist Peter Kurie returns to his hometown to examine the legacy of the Hershey Trust among local residents, company employees, and alumni of the K-12 Milton Hershey School. He arrives just as a scandal erupts that raises questions about the outsized power of the private trust over public life. Kurie draws on diverse voices across the community to show how philanthropy stirs passions and interests well beyond intended beneficiaries. In Chocolate We Trust reveals the cultural significance of Hershey as a forerunner to socially conscious corporations and the cult of the entrepreneur-philanthropist. The Hershey story encapsulates the dreams and wishes of today's consumer-citizens: the dream of becoming personally successful, and the wish that the most affluent among us will serve the common good.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2018
Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams by
THIS BOOK IS NEITHER LICENSED NOR SPONSORED BY THE HERSHEY COMPANY. Hershey. The name means chocolate to America and the world, but as Michael D'Antonio reveals, it also stands for an inspiring man and a uniquely successful experiment in community and capitalism that produced a business empire devoted to a higher purpose. One of the twentieth century's most eccentric and idealistic titans of industry, Milton S. Hershey brought affordable milk chocolate to America, creating and then satisfying the chocoholic urges of millions. He pioneered techniques of branding, mass production, and marketing, and gained widespread fame as the Chocolate King. But as he developed massive factories, Cuban sugar plantations, and a vacation wonderland called Hershey Park, M.S. never lost sight of a grander goal. Determined that his wealth produce a lasting legacy, he tried to create perfect places where his workers could live, perfect schools for their children, and a perfect charity to salvage the lives of needy children in perpetuity. Along the way, he overcame his personal childhood traumas, as well as the death, after a short and intensely romantic marriage, of the one woman he ever loved. In childhood, Milton was torn by the constant conflicts between his stern mother and starry-eyed father. He watched his father go bust in the oil fields and his sister die of scarlet fever. As a young man he failed with businesses in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. Milton finally succeeded in Lancaster, thanks to a caramel recipe copied from another confectioner and a lucky break provided by a British importer. Then, at the history-shaping Columbian Exhibition, Milton found the chocolate-making technology that would allow him to bring a new taste to America. When they heard about his plan to build a chocolate empire complete with its own little city in rural Pennsylvania, his friends said he needed a legal guardian. Ten years later, Milton controlled the U.S. chocolate market, and his town, Hershey, Pennsylvania, was the ideal American village. Factory workers lived in graceful homes. Their children attended the best schools. Local parks, libraries, and theaters rivaled the best in big cities. Trains brought thousands of tourists every day, who flocked to see the miracle town, the Hershey zoo, and an enormous amusement park. Not content with these accomplishments, a childless M.S. Hershey founded an orphanage for boys at his family homestead. After his wife Catherine's death, the press revealed that he had secretly willed his entire estate to the Hershey Industrial School, as it was called. This was only the beginning of his giving. Through the Great Depression, Milton Hershey used his fortune to fund a massive building program that kept all his workers employed and spared the community the real hardships of the era. Before he died, he even gave away his mansion, keeping just two rooms for himself. Remarkable as Hershey was, his legacy is even more powerful. It includes the $8 billion Hershey Trust (the single largest private fund for children in the world), an idyllic company town in central Pennsylvania, and a corporation that proves that the ideals of community and commerce can lead to profit. This first-ever, major biography of an American icon paints a vivid picture of what Milton S. Hershey accomplished as the ultimate progressive businessman. Hershey's life suggests a kind of capitalism that seems warmer, and more personal. He was a gambler, raconteur, despot, and servant. And he stands as a rare, and perhaps unique, example of ambition, altruism, ego, and humility.
Location: On LoanPublication Date: 2006
Sweets and Candy: A Global History by
With eye-popping colors and shapes, intense flavors, and curious textures, sweets and candy are beloved by people of all ages worldwide. They provide minor treats, lessons in economics for children, and colorful giveaways to mark festivities. They can be admired for beauty and novelty, make ideal gifts, and can even be used to woo. But these seemingly inconsequential indulgences are freighted with centuries of changing cultural attitudes, social and economic history, emotional attachments, and divergent views on the salubriousness of sugar. How did confectionary become so popular? Why do we value concentrated sweetness in such varied, gooey forms? And in the face of ongoing health debates, why persist in eating sweets? From marzipan pigs and nutty nougat to bubblegum and bonbons, Sweets and Candy looks beneath the glamour and sparkle to explore the sticky history of confectionary. Methods for making sweets can be traced back to the importance of sugar in Arabic medicine and the probable origin of this practice in ancient India--a place where sweetness is still important for both humans and gods. Gorging on gobstoppers from these early candy antecedents to modern-day delectables, Laura Mason describes the bewildering and fascinating ways in which different cultures have made, consumed, valued, and adored sweets throughout history. Featuring a selection of mouthwatering illustrations and scrumptious recipes to try at home, this global candy trail will delight sweet-toothed foodies and history buffs everywhere.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2018Cadbury's purple reign: the story behind chocolate's best-loved brand by
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2008
Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure by
For most Americans, candy is an uneasy pleasure, eaten with side helpings of guilt and worry. Yet candy accounts for only 6 percent of the added sugar in the American diet. And at least it's honest about what it is--a processed food, eaten for pleasure, with no particular nutritional benefit. So why is candy considered especially harmful, when it's not so different from the other processed foods, from sports bars to fruit snacks, that line supermarket shelves? How did our definitions of foodand candy come to be so muddled? And how did candy come to be the scapegoat for our fears about the dangers of food? InCandy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure, Samira Kawash tells the fascinating story of how candy evolved from a luxury good to a cheap, everyday snack. After candy making was revolutionized in the early decades of mass production, it was celebrated as a new kind of food for energy and enjoyment. Riding the rise in snacking and exploiting early nutritional science, candy was the first of the panoply of "junk foods" that would take over the American diet in the decades after the Second World War--convenient and pleasurable, for eating anytime or all the time. And yet, food reformers and moral crusaders have always attacked candy, blaming it for poisoning, alcoholism, sexual depravity and fatal disease. These charges have been disproven and forgotten, but the mistrust of candy they produced has never diminished. The anxiety and confusion that most Americans have about their diets today is a legacy of the tumultuous story of candy, the most loved and loathed of processed foods. Candyis an essential, addictive read for anyone who loves lively cultural history, who cares about food, and who wouldn't mind feeling a bit better about eating a few jelly beans.
Location: Mugar Stacks GT2868.2.U6 K39 2013Publication Date: 2013
Confectionery and Chocolate Engineering: Principles and Applications (Second Edition) by
Confectionery and chocolate manufacture has been dominated by large-scale industrial processing for several decades. It is often the case though, that a trial and error approach is applied to the development of new products and processes, rather than verified scientific principles. Confectionery and Chocolate Engineering: Principles and Applications, Second edition, adds to information presented in the first edition on essential topics such as food safety, quality assurance, sweets for special nutritional purposes, artizan chocolate, and confectioneries. In addition, information is provided on the fading memory of viscoelastic fluids, which are briefly discussed in terms of fractional calculus, and gelation as a second order phase transition. Chemical operations such as inversion, caramelization, and the Maillard reaction, as well as the complex operations including conching, drying, frying, baking, and roasting used in confectionery manufacture are also described. This book provides food engineers, scientists, technologists and students in research, industry, and food and chemical engineering-related courses with a scientific, theoretical description and analysis of confectionery manufacturing, opening up new possibilities for process and product improvement, relating to increased efficiency of operations, the use of new materials, and new applications for traditional raw materials.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2017
The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars by
Forrest Mars and Milton Hershey were visionaries who built vast kingdoms of candy through the force of their imagination and determination. In this eight-year investigation of the candy business, former Washington Post reporter Joel Glenn Brenner takes us inside a world as mysterious as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, where industrial spies jockey for trade secrets and paranoid executives fight an all-out war for America's sweet tooth.Forrest Mars, the "Howard Hughes of candy", is one of the most private and innovative entrepreneurs in America, a brilliant autocrat who built one of the world's most unique companies.Milton Hershey was a dreamer who wanted to create not just a company but an industrial paradise, and after making an immense fortune, he promptly gave it all away, to fund what would become the wealthiest orphanage in history.What began as a fraternity of small family-owned businesses has grown into a multibillion-dollar cutthroat industry increasingly dominated by these two corporate leviathans. Brenner's investigation is authoritative, eye-opening, and written with a deep understanding of and feeling for her sub
Location: Pardee Stacks HD9200.U54 H473 1999Publication Date: 1998
Obroni and the Chocolate Factory: The Unlikely Story and Globalization of Ghana's First Gourmet Chocolate Bar by
What country makes the best chocolate? Most people would answer "Switzerland," or, if they're discerning, "Belgium" or "France." But, how many cocoa trees grow in Zurich? Lyon? Antwerp? Shouldn't the country known for growing the best cocoa beans be the one that makes the best chocolate? So, captivated by theories of international trade but with precious little knowledge of cocoa or chocolate, Steven Wallace set out to build the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company in Ghana--a country renowned for its cocoa and where Wallace spent part of his youth--in a quest to produce the world's first export-ready, single-origin chocolate bar. What followed would be the true story of an obroni--white person--from Wisconsin taking on the ultimate entrepreneurial challenge. Written with sensitivity and devastating self-awareness, Obroni and the Chocolate Factory is Steven's chaotic, fascinating, and bemusing journey to create a successful international business that aspired to do a bit of good in the world. This book is at once a penetrating business memoir and a story about imagining globalism done right. Wallace's picaresque journey takes him to Ghana's residence for the head of state, to the Amsterdam offices of a secretive international cocoa conglomerate, and face-to-face with key figures in the sharp-elbowed world of global trade and geopolitics. Along the way he'll be forced to deal with bureaucratic roadblocks, a legacy of colonialism, corporate intrigue, inscrutable international politics, a Bond-esque villain nemesis, and constant uncertainty about whether he'll actually pull it off. This rollicking love letter to both Ghana and the world of business is a rare glimpse into the mind of an unusually literate and articulate entrepreneur.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2017
Creepy Capital
Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs by
Former Wall Street Journal technology reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane delves deep inside Apple in the two years since Steve Jobs's death, revealing the tensions and challenges CEO Tim Cook and his team face as they try to sustain Jobs's vision and keep the company moving forward. Steve Jobs's death raised one of the most pressing questions in the tech and business worlds: Could Apple stay great without its iconic leader? Many inside the company were eager to prove that Apple could be just as innovative as it had been under Jobs. Others were painfully aware of the immense challenge ahead. As its business has become more complex and global, Apple has come under intense scrutiny, much of it critical. Maintaining market leadership has become crucial as it tries to conquer new frontiers and satisfy the public's insatiable appetite for "insanely great" products. Based on over two hundred interviews with current and former executives, business partners, Apple watchers and others, Haunted Empire is an illuminating portrait of Apple today that offers clues to its future. With nuanced insights and colorful details that only a seasoned journalist could glean, Kane goes beyond the myths and headlines. She explores Tim Cook's leadership and its impact on Jobs's loyal lieutenants, new product development, and Apple's relationships with Wall Street, the government, tech rivals, suppliers, the media, and consumers. Hard-hitting yet fair, Haunted Empire reveals the perils and opportunities an iconic company faces when it loses its visionary leader.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD9696.2.U64 A67365 2014Publication Date: 2014
A Ghost's Memoir: The Making of Alfred P. Sloan's "My Years with General Motors" by
The story of the ghostwriting of Alfred P. Sloan's best-selling memoir, General Motor's attempts to block the book's publication, and the author's eventual triumph over the corporation. Published in 1964, My Years with General Motors was an immediate best-seller and today is considered one of the few classic books on management. The book is the ghostwritten memoir of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (1875-1966), whose business and management strategies enabled General Motors to overtake Ford as the dominant American automobile manufacturer in the 1920s and 1930s. What has been largely unknown until now is that My Years with General Motors was almost not published. Although it was written with the permission of General Motors -- and slated for publication in October 1959 -- at the last minute General Motors tried to suppress the book out of fears that some of the material in it could become evidence in an antitrust action against the company. This book, by John McDonald, Sloan's ghostwriter, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the book's writing, its attempted suppression, and the lawsuit that eventually led to its publication. McDonald's narrative is partly the David-and-Goliath story of a lone journalist taking on the world's then-largest corporation and partly a study of strategy in its own right. McDonald's struggle to publish the book led him to navigate a complicated course among the competing interests of General Motors, Fortune magazine (his employer), and Time, Inc. (Fortune's owner). In many ways this "book about the book" parallels the Sloan book as a tale of successful, brilliantly planned strategy.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD9710.U54 G47467 2002Publication Date: 2002
Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rapid Fans by
Marketing and PR expert Peter Shankman has been working with the biggest companies in the world to create what he calls "Zombie Loyalists," fervent fans that help companies massively increase their customer base, brand awareness, and most importantly, revenue. After all, why should you have to tell the world how amazing you are if you can have your existing customers do it for you? Imagine an army of customers who will do your PR, marketing and advertising, without being asked, each and every time they give you their money. These are Zombie Loyalists. They are ready to buy what you sell, respond to your email offers and demand that their friends to do the same. So how do you get this rabid following? There's been a lot of lip service given to customer loyalty over the past few years, but most companies still don't realize that a points program or a slew of untargeted emails simply won't do it. With so many products and platforms to choose from, amazing customer service is the only differentiator that will truly put you ahead of your competition. Looking at exceptional companies like the Ritz Carlton, Amazon, and Starwood Hotels, as well as smaller businesses to turn their customers into Zombie Loyalists, he shows how you can create your own customer army.
Location: Pardee Stacks HF5415.5 .S51943 2015Publication Date: 2015
Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations are Crippling the Global Economy by
An in-depth look at the problems surrounding zombie banks and their dangerous effect on the global economy "The title is worthy of a B movie, but it's also apt. Bloomberg News reporter Yalman Onaran, supported by former U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chief Sheila Bair - who provides a foreword and numerous interviews - urge that insolvent banks both small and too big to fail be allowed to do precisely that. Reading bank balance sheets is not everyone's idea of a good time. But Mr. Onaran, with support from Ms. Bair, does the chore and explains what it means. Mr. Onaran shows that the process of rescuing dead and dying banks is increasing systemic risk in the global banking system. And that is really more frightening than scream flicks from Tinseltown." -- Financial Post "Yalman Onaran knows of putrid financial institutions, having written about them in his native Turkey so successfully he brought down a few in Istanbul in the late '90's." -- Huffington Post "Do We Love Zombie Banks? The new book by Yalman Onaran of Bloomberg News, Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations Are Crippling the Global Economy, is a well-organized and clearly written discussion of the use of leverage to provide growth in many different economies. Onaran has carefully researched the zombie phenomenon and makes some important points in this concise volume about both public policy and the concerns of investors. One of the more interesting early threads in the book is the juxtaposition of the experience of the US in the S&L crisis and Japan in the 1980s and 1990s with the US today. Zombie Banks is a good review of the latest thinking about the ebb and flow of the political economy." -- R. Christopher Whalen, author of Inflated Zombie banking has become standard operating procedure for big debtor nations. They prop up failing institutions, print money, and avoid financial corrections. But in an attempt to prolong the inevitable, bigger problems are created. The approach used now has not, and will not, work. This timely book reveals why. Zombie Banks tells the story of how debtor nations and failing institutions are damaging the long-term prospects of the global economy. Author Yalman Onaran, a veteran Bloomberg News reporter and financial banking sector expert, examines exactly what a zombie bank is and why they are kept alive. He also discusses how they hurt economic recovery and what needs to be done in order to restore stability. Along the way, Onaran takes an honest look at how we arrived at this point and details the harsh realities that must be faced, and the serious steps that must be taken, in order to get things headed in the right direction. Puts insolvent banks and debtor nations in the spotlight and examines how they are crippling the global economy On the record sources include Paul Volcker, Joseph Stiglitz, Sheila Bair, and many more bank executives, regulators, politicians, and policymakers in the United States and abroad Takes the complexity of the current situation and translates it in a way that makes it understandable While the short-term measures taken to stave off depression and rejuvenate economic growth may offer hope, they are unsustainable over the long term. Get a better look at what really lies ahead, and what it will take to improve our economic situation, with this book.
Location: Pardee Stacks HG3891.5 .O53 2012Publication Date: 2011
Gothic Tourism by
From Strawberry Hill to The Dungeons, Alnwick Castle to Barnageddon, Gothic tourism is a fascinating, and sometimes controversial, area. This lively study considers Gothic tourism's aesthetics and origins, as well as its relationship with literature, film, folklore, heritage management, arts programming and the 'edutainment' business.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2016
Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry by
A "haunting" (Anne Helen Petersen, author of Can't Even) and deeply personal investigation of an underground for-profit medical industry and the American underclass it drains for blood and profit. Journalist Kathleen McLaughlin knew she'd found a treatment that worked on her rare autoimmune disorder. She had no idea it had been drawn from the veins of America's most vulnerable. So begins McLaughlin's ten-year investigation researching and reporting on the $20-billion-a year business she found at the other end of her medication, revealing a "vampiric real-life story of modern-day greed" (Leah Sottile, host of Bundyville). Assigned to work in China, where the plasma supply had been rocked by numerous scandals, McLaughlin hid American plasma in her luggage during trips between the two countries. And when she was warned by a Chinese researcher of troubling echoes between America's domestic plasma supply chain and the one she'd seen spin out into chaos in China, she knew she had to dig deeper. Blood Money shares McLaughlin's decade-long mission to learn the full story of where her medicine comes from. She travels the United States in search of the truth about human blood plasma and learns that twenty million Americans each year sell their plasma for profit--a human-derived commodity extracted inside our borders to be processed and packaged for retail across the globe. She investigates the thin evidence pharmaceutical companies have used to push plasma as a wonder drug for everything from COVID-19 to wrinkled skin. And she unearths an American economic crisis hidden in plain sight: single mothers, college students, laid-off Rust Belt auto workers, and a booming blood market at America's southern border, where collection agencies target Mexican citizens willing to cross over and sell their plasma for substandard pay. This "captivating and anguished exposé" (Publishers Weekly) weaves together McLaughlin's personal battle to overcome illness while also facing her own complicity in this wheel of exploitation with an electrifying portrait of big business run amok.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2023
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by
"In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work. For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When John Carreyrou, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. The biggest corporate fraud since Enron is a cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.
Location: Alumni Medical Library Stacks HD9995.H423 U627 2018; On Loan from PardeePublication Date: 2018
Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us by
In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land. The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many--members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us--and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future. Zombie Economics takes the reader through the origins, consequences, and implosion of a system of ideas whose time has come and gone. These beliefs--that deregulation had conquered the financial cycle, that markets were always the best judge of value, that policies designed to benefit the rich made everyone better off--brought us to the brink of disaster once before, and their persistent hold on many threatens to do so again. Because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, Zombie Economics also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to traditional Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough--either to kill dead ideas, or prevent future crises. In a new chapter, Quiggin brings the book up to date with a discussion of the re-emergence of pre-Keynesian ideas about austerity and balanced budgets as a response to recession.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2012
Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is and What It Should Be by
How economics needs to change to keep pace with the twenty-first century and the digital economy Digital technology, big data, big tech, machine learning, and AI are revolutionizing both the tools of economics and the phenomena it seeks to measure, understand, and shape. In Cogs and Monsters, Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems—but also opportunities—facing economics today and examines what it must do to help policymakers solve the world's crises, from pandemic recovery and inequality to slow growth and the climate emergency.Mainstream economics, Coyle says, still assumes people are "cogs"—self-interested, calculating, independent agents interacting in defined contexts. But the digital economy is much more characterized by "monsters"—untethered, snowballing, and socially influenced unknowns. What is worse, by treating people as cogs, economics is creating its own monsters, leaving itself without the tools to understand the new problems it faces. In response, Coyle asks whether economic individualism is still valid in the digital economy, whether we need to measure growth and progress in new ways, and whether economics can ever be objective, since it influences what it analyzes. Just as important, the discipline needs to correct its striking lack of diversity and inclusion if it is to be able to offer new solutions to new problems.Filled with original insights, Cogs and Monsters offers a road map for how economics can adapt to the rewiring of society, including by digital technologies, and realize its potential to play a hugely positive role in the twenty-first century.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2021
The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America - and Spawned a Global Crisis by
Who killed the economy? A page-turning, true-crime exposé of the subprime salesmen and Wall Street alchemists who produced the biggest financial scandal in American history "It's hard to have a guilty conscience if you don't have a conscience. Anything that benefited production - that benefited me and benefited my wallet - I'd do it." The sales force at Ameriquest Mortgage took this philosophy to heart. They watched the Hollywood white-collar-crime flick "Boiler Room" as a training tape, studying how to pitch overpriced deals to unsuspecting home owners. They learned how to forge signatures on mortgage paperwork and create fake documents in "cut-and-paste" operations they dubbed "The Lab" or "The Art Department." In this stunning narrative, award-winning reporter Michael W. Hudson reveals the story of the rise and fall of the subprime mortgage business by chronicling the rise and fall of two corporate empires: Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. As the biggest subprime lender and Wall Street's biggest patron of subprime, Ameriquest and Lehman did more than any other institutions to create the feeding frenzy that emboldened mortgage pros to flood the nation with high-risk, high-profit home loans. It's a tale populated by a remarkable cast of the characters: a shadowy billionaire who created the subprime industry out of the ashes of the 1980s S&L scandal; Wall Street executives with an insatiable desire for product; struggling home owners ensnared in the most ingenious of traps; lawyers and investigators who tried to expose the fraud; politicians and bureaucrats who turned a blind eye; and, most of all, the drug-snorting, high-living salesman who tell all about the money they made, thelies they told, the deals they closed. Provocative and gripping,The Monster is a searing exposé of the bottom-feeding fraud and top-down greed that fueled the financial collapse.
Location: Pardee Stacks HG2040.5.U5 H843 2010Publication Date: 2010
Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel by
An eye-popping, unauthorized expos? of the House of Barbie From Boise to Beijing, Mattel's toys dominate the universe. Its no-fun-and-games marketing muscle reaches some 140 countries, and its iconic products have been a part of our culture for generations. Now, in this intriguing and entertaining expos?, New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer places the world's largest toy company under a journalistic microscope, uncovering the dark side of toy land, and exploring Mattel's oddball corporate culture and eccentric, often bizarre, cast of characters. Based on exclusive interviews and an exhaustive review of public and private records, Toy Monster exposes Mattel's take-no-prisoners, shark-infested corporate style. Throughout this scrupulously reported, unauthorized portrait, you'll discover how dangerous toys are actually nothing new to Mattel, and why its fearsomely litigious approach within the brutal toy business has helped their products dominate potential rivals such as Bratz. Introduces you to the larger-than-life personalities that have shaped Mattel's eccentric world Offers an inside look- from an experienced author-at the scandals that have been a part of this iconic company Jerry Oppenheimer is also the author of Madoff with the Money, an in-depth look at Bernie Madoff the man and his billion dollar scam Engaging and accessible, Toy Monster shows you why today's toy business isn't always fun and games.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD9993.T694 M386 2009Publication Date: 2009
The Monster under the Bed: How Business is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit by
Companies in the business of providing knowledge for profit will dominate the 21st-century global marketplace. The authors advise on how to accomplish this. The book is full of examples from companies that have succeeded in making their businesses more profitable.
Location: Pardee Stacks HF1106 .D32 1994Publication Date: 1994
Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America by
Gary Laderman traces the origins of American funeral rituals, & looks at the increasing subordination of religious figures to the funeral director in the late 20th century, demonstrating that the modern director is very far from Mitford's manipulator of 'The American Way of Death'.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD9999.U53 U543 2003Publication Date: 2003
Tales from Kentucky Funeral Homes by
In Tales from Kentucky Funeral Homes, William Lynwood Montell has collected stories and reminiscences from funeral home directors and embalmers across the state. These accounts provide a record of the business of death as it has been practiced in Kentucky over the past fifty years. The collection ranges from tales of old-time burial practices, to stories about funeral customs unique to the African American community, to tales of premonitions, mistakes, and even humorous occurrences. Other stories involve such unusual aspects of the business as snake-handling funerals, mistaken identities, a
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2009
The Death of Management: Restoring Value to the U.S. Economy by
Management as we know it has been the driver of business growth in U.S. economies for a couple of centuries. Yet the practice of management is no longer focused on creating real value. Instead, it is now all about using sophisticated financial techniques-and practices like outsourcing and downsizing, among others--to improve profitability. Such addition through subtraction results in higher profits in the short term but puts the corporation and its employees at risk in the long term--not to mention the entire U.S. economy. Innovation and productivity improvement, corporate manager Jack Buffington argues, are lost arts in American business. So is getting back to basics the answer? Buffington's provocative thesis: Management as we know it probably can't be repaired. It must be replaced. Asian economies, meanwhile, are growing by leaps and bounds thanks in part to short-term, ill-advised decisions made by U.S. managers. Local companies and divisions of multinational organizations in emerging countries are on track to eventually overtake those of the West, putting our job base and prosperity at peril. If we want to bring manufacturing jobs back here to the U.S., corporate managers must seek productivity and innovation improvements in U.S. operations. Jack Buffington knows all too well how quickly things can go downhill for U.S. businesses. Turned into a relentless cost-cutter by the forces of globalization and Wall Street's expectations for short-term gains, he--like thousands of other U.S. executives--has watched some of the companies he's worked for disappear for want of real value. Whereas America once prized managers who displayed skill in optimizing the interplay of capital, labor, and technology to grow a company, today's professional manager is rewarded more often for being a cost cutter than an innovator. Fortunately, this book not only outlines the problem, it outlines the solution as well by establishing a 21st-century definition of management that will succeed in today's global economy. Rather than angling to produce a penny more of earnings per share to please the financiers, corporate managers will see once again how to use their ingenuity to produce products, services, and business processes that not only provide generous profits but sustain a business--and its jobs--for years to come. By heeding Buffington's call, the U.S. can rekindle its zeal for innovation, leading to an era in which consumers, workers, investors, and managers all prosper.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD70.U5 B84 2009Publication Date: 2009
Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside, and How the World's Richest Corporation Wields Its Power by
"Microsoft, a rather new corporation, may not have matured to the position where it understands how it should act with respect to the public interest."-U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin. Teamed with the daughter of one of Bill Gates's closest associates, thirteen-year Microsoft veteran Marlin Eller shows us what it was like at every step along Gates's route to world domination, making all that's been written before seem like a rough guess. If the Justice Department had Eller and Edstrom investigating the current-headline-making antitrust case, they would have on the record many of Microsoft's most respected developers directly contradicting the "authorized" version of events being presented in court. They would know the real scoop on how Windows was developed in the first place, shedding new light on the 1988 Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit over the alleged copying of the Mac. They would even know the real story of how Microsoft killed off Go Corporation, told for the first time by the man who did the deed, Marlin Eller himself. Revealing the smoke-and-mirror deals, the palms greased to help launch a product that didn't exist, and the boneyard of once-thriving competitors targeted by the Gates juggernaut, this book demonstrates with often hilariously damning detail the Microsoft muddle that passes for strategic direction, offset by Gates's uncanny ability to come from behind to crush whoever's on top.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD9696.63.U64 M534 1998Publication Date: 1998
Social Security Horror Stories: Protect Yourself from the System and Avoid Clawbacks by
Social Security has an extremely dark and dangerous side. It determines and pays out benefits only to claw them back years or decades later, because of its own mistakes. Social Security is in the process of clawing back $21.6 BILLION! The demands range from $100 to over $100,000. Clawback victims can be the elderly living solely on Social Security, retired schoolteachers, or 5 year-old orphans collecting survivor benefits. The clawback notices all carry the threat that benefits will be stopped immediately if a repayment plan is not set. But clawbacks are just part of the system's hidden malevolence. The system is running a series of scams, many targeted at women, and all costing recipients a small fortune in benefits they deserve. Yes, this book is scary. But it also conveys simple ways to protect yourself from clawbacks and scams by what may be the cruelest bureaucracy in the world. And we share our plans to pressure Social Security into becoming the system we love, not the one we must fear.
Location: Pardee Stacks HD7125 .K65 2023Publication Date: 2023
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