The Company; A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea

"I like big companies. It's easier to return shit." - Dennis Miller Chosen by BusinessWeek as One of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year Synopsis: From the acclaimed authors of A Future Perfect comes the untold story of how the company became the world’s most powerful institution. Like all groundbreaking books, The Company fills a hole we didn’t know existed, revealing that we cannot make sense of the past four hundred years until we place that seemingly humble Victorian innovation, the joint-stock company, in the center of the frame. With their trademark authority and wit, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge reveal the company to be one of history’s great catalysts, for good and for ill, a mighty engine for sucking in, recombining, and pumping out money, goods, people, and culture to every corner of the globe. What other earthly invention has the power to grow to any size, and to live to any age? What else could have given us both the stock market and the British Empire? The company man, the company town, and company time? Disneyfication and McDonald’sization, to say nothing of Coca-colonialism? Through its many mutations, the company has always incited controversy, and governments have always fought to rein it in. Today, though Marx may spin in his grave and anarchists riot in the streets, the company exercises an unparalleled influence on the globe, and understanding what this creature is and where it comes from has never been a more pressing matter. To the rescue come these acclaimed authors, with a short volume of truly vast range and insight. Author: John Micklethwait/ Adrian Wooldridge (Narrator) Jonathan Davis Genre: NonFiction; History; Business, Economics Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC (Feb 2003) Format: 107 mp3 files Duration: 6 hrs 46 mins ISBN: 978-0-8129-7287-0 (0-8129-7287-2) Audio codec: 1.70 MB (1,748 KB / 1,790,561 bytes) Audio Info: 22050Hz 64 kb/s tot , Joint Stereo Language: English John Micklethwait is Editor-in-Chief of The Economist. Before that he edited the US section of the newspaper (1999 - 2006) and ran the New York Bureau for two years, having edited the Business Section of the newspaper for the previous four years. His other roles have included setting up The Economist's office in Los Angeles, where he worked from 1990 - 1993 and being Media Correspondent. He has covered business and politics from the United States, Latin America, Continental Europe, Southern Africa and most of Asia. He is a frequent broadcaster and has appeared on CNN, ABC News, BBC and NPR. He is the co-author of The Witch Doctors, A Future Perfect: the Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalisation and The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea and The Right Nation, a study of conservatism in America, with Adrian Wooldridge, also an Economist journalist. Adrian Wooldridge is the Economist's Washington Bureau Chief, based in Washington DC, writing the Lex Column. He covers politics, social policy, and social and political events. Previously he has been The Economist's West Coast Correspondent, Management Correspondent and Britain Correspondent. He is the co-author of The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea[i], [i]A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalisation, Witch Doctors a critical examination of management theory and The Right Nation, a study of conservatism in America. **NOTE** - Torrent originally found onhome of great audiobooks

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Cowgill (2009-04-24)

Sounds fascinating - thanks for the post and sharing

stands2reason (2009-06-07)

Disc 3 and about an hour's worth of content is missing.

chungwa (2009-07-05)

Oh dear what an awful book. I was expecting the engaging writing that often makes The Economist a good read and an examination of both sides of the history of the corporation.
In short this book is embarrassing. It has no edge whatsoever, reads like a self-congratulatory recruitment brochure for the world of corporations and the narrative lacks any kind of drive.
It reads like it was written by journalists who work for a publication that owes its revenue to the world's biggest corporations and who have spent many years writing annual reports for those same clients.
I agree with the idea that we need to look at the role of companies in society, but not through rose-tinted spectacles and not by these two spineless writers.
We have spent the 20th century flighting totalitarianism wherever it reared its head defending our human rights. But the internal laws of the corporations we work for reflect few of the liberties contained in our constitutions.
Today's corporations subject their employees to slanted propaganda, mediaeval notions of justice and human rights and a constant climate of fear. They are organised along the lines of Roman society, but while Rome ultimately collaped, companies keep going.
Don't take it from me, but don't read this either.