For Profit

A History of Corporations

By: William Magnuson

Narrated by: Dan Woren

A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society, from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley

Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism has only grown more intense in recent years. Meanwhile, corporations continue to amass wealth and power at a dizzying rate, recklessly pursuing profit while leaving society to sort out the costs.
 
In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of the corporation didn’t have to come to this. Throughout history, he finds, corporations have been purpose-built to benefit the societies that surrounded them. Corporations enabled everything from the construction of ancient Rome’s roads and aqueducts to the artistic flourishing of the Renaissance to the rise of the middle class in the twentieth century. By recapturing this original spirit of civic virtue, Magnuson argues, corporations can help craft a society in which all of us—not just shareholders—benefit from the profits of enterprise.

Critic reviews

“Brilliantly conceived and enlightening at every turn, For Profit is a thrilling history of an institution that has shaped all our lives—for better and for worse.”—Lawrence Wright, author of The Plague Year

“In this lively and informative history of the corporation, William Magnuson shows that corporations were born to serve the public interest—only to be used and abused time and again to maximize profits for shareholders and executives. A must-read for any student of the world’s most influential form of economic organization.”—Adam Winkler, author of We the Corporations

Well-Told History

From ancient Rome to modern startups, For Profit tells the story of corporations through the ages. it's an engaging listen with plenty of interesting details.

Selected stories give great explanations

This is well titled as "a" history of corporations, not "the" history. It does not cover every inch of the story. Rather, major scenes are set, spread across business history, with well-told stories. These stories in turn give some of the clearest views I've every seen of big ideas and events in corporations, such as the rise of finance across Europe, monopolies, multinationals, the Ford Motors revolution, the corporate raider era. Silicon valley startups through big tech, and so on. It starts slow (the early Roman examples dragged a bit for me), but as the book progressed, I was more fully drawn in. Listening to this book saved me listening to maybe eight other books to get the same stories and info told better, and more succinctly, here. Especially in reference to the raiders era, I also recommend "Bloodsport" by Robert Teitelbaum, which is a bit more focused on the law and corporate finance side.

I will say: there are clearer, sharper statements elsewhere of the issues. (For example, see the discussion of conflicting interests within corporations in "Bloodsport," above, and the ideas, such as agency theory, it explains.) I do not consider this discussion "advanced." The discussion does not encompass the latest tech waves. It is necessarily sort of fuzzy, though selective, in focus. The viewpoint is a basic politically centrist mid 20th-dentury civics class type view, repeating endlessly how corporations exist for "the public good," but then giving (to my mind) fuzzy examples of what that is. But in sum, it was worth the time, I think especially for someone who has not read a lot of corporate history.

First 1/2 great rest steel downhill

First 1/2 great rest steel downhill. Lost his focus from 80’s onwards. Starts to tell story of big name companies versus the objective of the book.

A good introductory read and gift.

A very entertaining and informative story, I found the historical context valuble to explain the evolving stages of the corporation's structure and capabilities. The subject matter also drove home the role of commerce in making history and the world of today.

Did a corporation write this?

Not really a history of corporations so much as an apologia. Read The Anarchy instead.