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For Profit

A History of Corporations

William Magnuson
Basic Books, 2022

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Overview
  • Background
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Though corporations have played a large role throughout history, textbooks often gloss over commerce. This entertaining history dives in, beginning with the origin of corporations in ancient Rome. Professor William Magnuson examines corporations’ role in funding the Renaissance, trade and exploration, war and peace, settlement of the American west, the invention of the automobile, and the growth of the oil industry and Silicon Valley. Magnuson makes a compelling case that, for good or ill, the corporation is fundamental to developed societies.

Take-Aways

  • Roman societates had much in common with modern corporations.
  • Corporations functioned as banks in Renaissance Italy.
  • The East India Company, a “joint stock company,” affected world history.

About the Author

Texas A&M Law School corporate law professor William Magnuson also wrote Blockchain Democracy: Technology, Law and the Rule of the Crowd. 

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