The Business of History: Tales and Lessons from Two Centuries of British Commerce

Anyone who orders the book before the end of May can take advantage of a pre-order discount of 15% off the cover price. Simply click the “Add to cart” button above and then look for the “Apply promotion” box on the following page and use the following code TL-BOH-15.

Why are today’s businesses as they are? Building on WH Beable’s Romance of Great Businesses, a description of 32 significant companies published a century ago, this book explores how some British commercial icons started, evolved and then coped with an ever-more-complex economic environment. Who were those Victorian entrepreneurs? How did their beliefs influence their work? What is their legacy? What has been lost and what gained? Finding that the political and religious affiliations of many leaders were not those of the ‘establishment’, how did owners’ awareness of their companies’ social and environmental impacts evolve? Why did ownership shift away from families towards shareholders and high finance?

Of the 32 companies, what was it about just four that has enabled them to survive intact into the twenty-first century? Twenty others still exist but only as brand names, often well-known, but eight have disappeared altogether – including some within living memory. How inevitable was their failure? Our ‘cast’ includes Unilever, Boots, Dunlop, Pears, Cadbury, WHSmith, Bass, Wedgwood, Schweppes, Colman’s and more.

From considering why the industrial revolution happened when it did to how shareholding opened the doors to widespread fraud and from the business case for Victorian philanthropy to the opportunities created by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we argue that business cannot divorce itself from the social and physical environment in which it operates. From a nineteenth-century free-for-all to today’s highly regulated global economy, we demonstrate to both academics and the general reader the positive and negative impacts of taxation, regulation and ‘events’ on business historically.

Advance praise for The Business of History

“Libraries are crowded with books attempting to define the attributes of a successful business, capable of enduring decades, let alone centuries. This book has done something refreshingly different. Levitt offers lessons and analysis from the past and warnings for the future, a ‘warts and all’ account of the titans of business spanning some 200 years. The companies that will be written about in another century, I believe, will be the ones that embrace their purpose, giving back more than they take, rejecting ‘business as usual’. Those that don’t will be consigned to the graveyard of dinosaurs. CEOs would be wise to reflect upon the lessons in this book.” — Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever

“What stands out for me in Tom Levitt’s fascinating new book is how great Victorian companies, a few of which have survived to this day, saw themselves and acted more or less as ‘social’ enterprises. And that was long before governance, environment and corporate social responsibility obligations had to be introduced to tame the behaviour that excessive adherence to the late-twentieth-century concept of ‘shareholder value’ had encouraged.” — Professor Vicky Pryce, former joint head of the UK Government Economic Service

“This enjoyable journey through the history of some prominent British businesses – some still household names, many no longer in independent existence – is full of both drama and insight. There are lessons here for the future of today’s companies in an era of technological transformation and climate change.” — Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge

“It is far too simplistic to label all businesses as destroyers of nature or engines of social injustice, ignoring the positive contribution from enlightened, innovative and responsible businesses. This book revisits the history of UK business, providing a new baseline with which to evaluate today’s business world environment, drawing out fascinating insights while providing recommendations to inspire and shape a better world.” — Professor Ian Thomson, Chair in Accounting and Sustainability, School of Business, University of Dundee

“As a business school academic, one theme in this fascinating book made for very uncomfortable reading. Levitt suggests that the main impact of UK business schools on firms has been to help institutionalize neo-classical economic thought and its derived management practices. Some of the fateful outcomes of that process are well illustrated in the book. It should prompt my colleagues in business schools to reflect on what we’ve been part of, what our purpose is, and how we need to change business schools to reflect this.” — Professor Martin Kitchener, FCIPD FLSW FAcSS, Cardiff Business School

After thirteen years in parliament (1997–2010), Tom Levitt established himself in the field of sustainable and responsible business, an interest he now pursues at the University of West London. He has written widely on the issue as well as creating fiction and a biography of Frances Perkins, America’s first female cabinet member. His books include The Company Citizen (Routledge, 2018). He is co-founder of a successful social enterprise, Fair for You; a science graduate; and a season-ticket holder at Brentford FC.