The Economic and Business Historical Society

On-Line Proceedings Journal

Volume 23, 2005


Papers from the thirtieth annual conference

of the

Economic and Business Historical Society

Held at

High Point, North Carolina

April 28, 29, & 30, 2005



© Economic and Business Historical Society

Suggested citation format: author, title, Economic and Business Historical Society On-Line Proceedings Journal 23 (EBHSoc.org, 2005).

(scroll down for table of contents)

 

 

AN ACADEMIC HERETIC'S PROPOSAL FOR COST CONTAINMENT:  THE AUTONOMOUS BACCALAUREATE COLLEGE

 

Patrick Leonard

Vice President for Academic Services

College of the Southwest

6610 Lovington Highway

Hobbs, New Mexico 88240

505-392-6561

pleonard@csw.edu

 

Abstract

College and university tuition continues to increase faster than the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  The response of higher education is defensive and self-serving, focusing on external cost pressures, the difference between total cost and sticker price rather the cost of doing business as usual. The traditional mix of faculty, curriculum, and capital, the academic production function, has been ignored as a primary contributor to ever-increasing tuition charges.  As long as the inviolate production function remains unchallenged, cost containment will remain elusive. 

(click here for the paper)

 

 

THE WISCONSIN WINNEBAGOS, 1963-2000:

A PROBLEM IN DECOLONIZATION

Douglas Steeples
Retired, Mercer University
656 River North Blvd.
Macon, GA 31211
marliesesteeples@aol.com

ABSTRACT


This paper narrates and interprets the experiences of the Wisconsin Winnebagos as they formed an effective tribal government and moved toward economic self-sufficiency, 1963-2000. Their progress depended on a singular mixture of political and economic choices that included a strategic, highly profitable but risky, turn to casino gaming as a prime source of income. Their story demonstrates the continued usefulness of the term "Political Economy." It illustrates afresh the ways in which government and the material organization and functioning of a society remain tightly intertwined. It also illuminates the limitations that circumscribe nation-building and the achievement of self-sufficiency by a largely traditional society that is contained within, subject to the control of, and a de facto internal colony of a larger, conquering, dominant external nation state.

(click here for the paper)

 

[Editor's note:  Douglas Steeples is researching a book on the topic of this paper.  In a postscript to the paper Dean Steeples outlines his book.]

 

 

What'S In a Name?

A Brief History of Saks Fifth Avenue

 

Mark L. Gardner

Department of Management, Marketing, and Economics

Piedmont College

P.O. Box 10

Demorest, GA 30535

ph 706-778-8500 est. 1250

fax 706-776-2811

mgardner@piedmont.edu

 

ABSTRACT

 

Saks department store chain was founded in 1902 Washington, DC as a men's clothing store.  The name Fifth Avenue was added in 1924 when the New York Herald Square store moved to fashionable Fifth Avenue.  In return for control of the firm the Gimbel family financed the move and behind the leadership of Adam Long Gimbel (1925--1969) Saks established its reputation as a premier luxury retailer.  By 1978 Saks was operating 30 stores and in 2004, 63, including the Off 5th outlet stores.  At the beginning of the twenty-first century Saks faced internal and external challenges to its survival.

(click here for the paper)