Editor's Introduction

The Business History Conference held its 53rd annual meeting from May 31 to June 2, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks to the support of Case Western University and the efforts of the members of the local arrangements committee, Gary Previts (chair), Tiffany Welch, Laura Watt, Catherine Wells, and David Brown, the conference was a splendid success. The program committee, headed by Will Hausman, co-chaired by Pamela Laird and Margaret Levenstein, and assisted by Matthias Kipping and Christine Rosen, selected a varied and extremely stimulating group of papers.

Louis Galambos received the Business History Conference Lifetime Achievement Award, Bethany Moreton, the Herman Krooss Dissertation Prize, and Eric Hintz, the K. Austin Kerr Prize for the best first paper. Christopher McKenna received the Hagley Business History Prize for his book, The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2006). The Newcomen Prize for the best paper published in Enterprise & Society in the previous year went to Dario Gaggio for "Pyramids of Trust: Social Embeddedness and Political Culture in Two Italian Gold Jewelry Districts" (March 2006).

My term as editor ends with this issue. Philip Scranton will be taking over beginning with the March 2008 issue and I wish him every success. I am happy to report that the journal is in excellent condition, measured by both the number and quality of manuscripts it is receiving and the continued expansion of its availability in libraries worldwide, particularly in electronic form.

I am indebted to those who helped to keep the journal progressing. First let me thank Florida International University for its support, and especially Jose de la Torre, Dean of the Chapman Graduate School of Business and Arthur Herriot, former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the associate editors I worked with: Steven Tolliday, David Sicilia, Victoria Saker-Woeste, Hideaki Miyajima, Gail Triner, Francesca Carnevali, and Richard Greenwald. I thank the chairs of the Print Media Oversight Committee during my term, Jonathan Zeitlin, Meg Graham, Mary O'Sullivan, and Oxford University Press for their support of the journal since its inception. I am extremely grateful to the members of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board and others for their reviews of manuscripts.

Many thanks to Christopher Calvo, Yael Baisburd, and Jessica Barrella, graduate student assistants, for their work. Finally, Adam Albright deserves special mention for his continued excellent work in designing our stunning covers.

Most especially, I thank Elisabeth O'Kane whose tireless work as Coordinating Editor was simply indispensable.