The Record of Business and the Future of Business History: Establishing a Public Interest in Private Business Records

Long-term preservation of and access to business records of the sort that business historians have relied upon for decades and that supported the development of applied fields, like business strategy, is increasingly threatened by their growing value. The expansion of entrepreneurial capitalism following the end of the Cold War has produced a new era of business ascendant across much of the globe. At home, we are reminded of President Calvin Coolidge's observation that "the chief business of the American people is business." Not since Coolidge first uttered these words more than eighty years ago have they rung more true. And if the business of America is business, then surely the history of America is the history of American business. Yet, if we have witnessed a new gilded age in American industry, the evidentiary record of these events may disappoint future scholars, policy makers, and the interested public.