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United Nations NGO Committee on Sustainable Development
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The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos |  | Authors: Ken Hopper, Will Hopper
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Category: Book
List Price: $21.00
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 70,940
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 184511986X
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781845119867
ASIN: 184511986X
Publication Date: February 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Financial Times Top Ten Business Book of 2007! The Puritan Gift traces the origins and the characteristics of American managerial culture which, in the course of three centuries, would turn a group of small colonies into the greatest economic and political power on earth. It was the Protestant ethic whose characteristics--thrift, a respect for enquiry, individualism tempered by a need to cooperate, success as a measure of divine approval--helped to create the conditions which led to America's managerial and corporate success. Thus, the authors contend, the drive, energy and acceptance of innovation, competition, growth and social mobility, all have their origins in the discipline and ethos of America's first wave of European immigrants: the Puritans. And, the authors warn, as Americans distance themselves from core values which produced their nineteenth and twentieth century business and economic successes, they endanger the basis for their prosperity and security.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 Quintessential rules for management leadership May 16, 2007
David Howard
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
The future reform of western management will in no small part be dependent upon how carefully business leaders and academics study this remarkable book by the co-authors brothers Hopper - a unique teaming of engineering and financial minds that understand (and so ably communicate) the socio-technical forces that have shaped our commercialized society. The combined insights and experience of a life-long professional engineer and a still practicing investment banker combine in this book to cast a powerful analytical spotlight on the history of western management practice over the past 350 years. While the locus of the book is on American management cultures, the fundamental messages revealed are shown to be applicable to any culture intent on real wealth creation as opposed to mere financial engineering.
As the title suggests, this story - for this is no dry text destined for those soulless time-serving senior managers and executives intent on seeking the latest snake oil with which to lubricate their legitimized theft of shareholder funds - traces the origins of contemporary management back to the strict disciplines of the Puritan Migrants of the 1630s and their flight to America. The authors list the four abiding aspects of Puritanism which infused the managerial culture established by the descendents of those early settlers as being: 1) the purpose of life was to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth; 2) an aptitude for mechanical skills; 3) a moral outlook that subordinates the interest of the individual to the group; and, 4) an ability to gather, galvanize and marshal financial, material and human resources to a single purpose at whatever scale. More briefly put : Rectitude, Pragmatism, Teamwork and Leadership. An Appendix summarizes the quintessential of the book in a most useful listing of the authors' 25 principles underlying good practice from the Golden Age of Management (1920-1970).
The book is divided into five parts - Origins (1630-1815), Rise (1815-1920), Triumph (1920-1970), Collapse (1970-1995) and Revival (1995-2006). Throughout, the Puritan gift is described by the authors as being the underpinning of that rare ability to successfully create and manage organisations that serve a useful purpose in any sector of human activity. Throughout the authors warn that as America increasingly distances itself from these core values, which underlay its traditional commercial and economic success, it puts its own future prosperity and security at risk.
This truly remarkable book provides an original exploration of the dramatic and far-reaching consequences of the Puritans' gift to America - the ethos which produced the early success of America and what came to be known as the American dream. While the reader may feel that Frederick Taylor's efforts receive ill treatment and that Stafford Beer's contribution should not have been totally ignored, she will be encouraged to see how the authors highlight the "Cult of the (so-called) Expert" and the bluff and bluster of the MBA movement.
This reviewer, a practicing engineer, has read many management books over the past thirty years but never before one which has been so informative, so illuminating and so enjoyable. Trite as it may sound, this is essential reading for anyone aspiring to the new style of management that will be essential for productive success in the decades ahead as the eastern economies increasingly dominate world trade.
one of the most important business books in years May 26, 2009
Gary E. Hoover (Austin, Texas)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a great book. Whether you agree with all of it or not -- and when was the last time a thinking person agreed 100% with any book? -- it will make you think.
All the greatness of American (and world) business has been around for ages, and we just need to get back to basics, back to the roots. Any study of the great businesses and entrepreneurs teaches this lesson. The Hoppers do an excellent job of raising this idea, with plenty of great stories to support it.
It is surprising that the publishers do not get this book into bigtime US circulation. While written by Brits, it is after all a book about the rise and fall of American business and economic prestige. It should be on the "hot" table in all the US bookstores. But in order to get it quickly you have to go to amazon UK. What gives?
A gift from the Brits among us May 15, 2007
E. R. Savage (Hartford, CT USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Hoppers' book should be a page-turner for people interested in 20th century business. From his personal experience, Ken Hopper, an industrial consultant, has culled thousands of facts and distilled them into a package of wit and wisdom that many academics would envy. Virtually every page in the first half of the book has some new insight into how American manufacturing came to lead the world, to transform Japan (and through it, much of Asia), and go astray. While other publications have made use of his comments on salary ratios, this reviewer found his focus on the role of shop-floor leaders and problem-solvers to be an important contribution to the literature. The critique of the "B-school" mentality, while common these days, was prescient in the late 20th century. Finally, while not ignoring W E Deming's work, Hopper brings into focus the important contributions of the other engineers on the CCS team that worked under General MacArthur: Sarasohn, Protzman, and Polkinghorn. The second half of the book blends in material drawing on the in-depth experience of William Hopper, an investment banker. From this reviewer's perspective as a college instructor and retired business person, the brothers Hopper contribute a lucid, humanistic overview of American business's successes and challenges which should be of interest to the general reader as well as the specialist.
The Puritan Gift November 17, 2008
Gary Moore (Sarasota, Florida)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is for very good reason The Financial Times named this one of the ten best business books of 2007. It's not unusual in these times to find morality, or the lack of the traditional type on which America was built to be more precise, at the root of Wall Street's problems. But the Hoppers find it's at the root of the problems at General Motors and other once-great manufacturing companies, NASA and so on.
In essence, while the Puritan ethic once subordinated the interests of our managers to the interests of stakeholders--or employees, customers, vendors and so on--the "cult of the (so-called) expert" as the Hoppers call it, has reversed those interests since the 1960's. While managers once humbly listened to employees close to the product, they now manage from afar by listening to financial statements.
The Hoppers skillfully trace that movement from business gurus through our companies and into the business schools they endow for future managers. They then show how each entity has its own interest in inverting the Puritan ethic. Finally, they show how to restore the ethic that made American business--and even government--the envy of the world that it once was.
Any student pursuing a MBA or manager with a MBA should hestitate to call himself or herself educated, or consider himself or herself prepared to manage, until he or she reads this irreverent and fascinating if humbling book.
Decades worth of experience and observation. February 10, 2008
S Smyth (Belfast, Co Antrim United Kingdom)
This is a very readable book which abounds with good wit and, like the well rounded manager, is well rounded in its scope from before 1630 until 2006. By the end of the book, I had to conclude that the majority of the ills affecting the decline in American manufacturing, and American prosperity in general, since 1970, can be properly addressed without recourse to an ethics based on Puritanism including the subversion of the individual to the group, even though such an ethics is fundamentally voluntary, and is seemingly a simpler course to take than the intellectual rigours of the ethics of capitalism.
For instance, the principle of selfishness, as per capitalism, necessitates that others are able to prosper and not be exploited for short term gain. You can't trade to any meaningful extent with poor and demoralised people and make the world a better place.
The management side of the book with respect to complimentarity, cooperation and proper communication within the enterprise makes good sense. But this can only work effectively whenever there is no pressure or interference from institutional stockholders, or from government in consort with MBA graduates well versed in the techniques consistent with government demands.
Readers of this title would find Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics' valuable reading, if they like the principles of management described.
Peter Drucker's book on management is available from Amazon. My copy is on order.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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