Contact:
Andrew DeSio, (609) 258-5165, andrew_desio@press.princeton.edu
Lacey Graverson, Kauffman Foundation, (816) 932-1116, lgraverson@kauffman.org
The Invention of Enterprise presents the most comprehensive history of entrepreneurship ever compiled—from Ancient Mesopotamia to modern times
Princeton, NJ, March 16, 2010 – Princeton University Press and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation present the latest book in the Kauffman Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The Invention of Enterpise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times, edited by the esteemed economists David S. Landes, Joel Mokyr and William J. Baumol, gathers together, for the first time, leading economic historians to explore the entrepreneur's role in society from antiquity to the present. Addressing social and institutional influences from a historical context, each chapter examines entrepreneurship during a particular period and in an important geographic location.
The Invention of Enterprise chronicles the sweeping history of enterprise in Mesopotamia and Neo-Babylon; carries the reader through the Islamic Middle East; offers insights into the entrepreneurial history of China, Japan and Colonial India; and describes the crucial role of the entrepreneur in innovative activity in Europe and the United States, from the medieval period to today. In considering the critical contributions of entrepreneurship, the authors discuss why entrepreneurial activities are not always productive and may even sabotage prosperity. They examine the institutions and restrictions that have enabled or impeded innovation, and the incentives for the adoption and dissemination of inventions. They also describe the wide variations in global entrepreneurial activity during different historical periods and the similarities in development, as well as entrepreneurship's role in economic growth. The book is filled with past examples and events that provide lessons for promoting and successfully pursuing contemporary entrepreneurship as a means of contributing to the welfare of society.
The Invention of Enterprise lays out a definitive picture for all who seek an understanding of innovation's central place in our world.
Other books in the Kauffman series include Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed—and What to Do about It, written by Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner, and, The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship by William J. Baumol, which is scheduled for a July 2010 release. The Kauffman Series and will publish between two to three new titles a year. Princeton University Press economics editor Seth Ditchik will be working with the Kauffman Foundation to produce influential and timely new titles that will affect not only the discipline of entrepreneurship but also policymakers, business managers and technology financiers.
For more information on the Kauffman Series, visit press.princeton.edu/catalogs/series/kfie.html.
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Please fax or email requests for review copies on company letterhead. Be sure to include the title, author, ISBN number, as well as the address of the person to whom the book should be sent.
In North America:
Contact: Andrew DeSio
Phone: (609) 258-5165
Fax: (609) 258-1335
andrew_desio@press.princeton.edu
In Europe, Africa & Middle East:
Contact: Caroline Priday
Fax: 1993-814-504
Phone: 1993-814-506
cpriday@pupress.co.uk
