Vintage & Collectible Business Books

Hardcover. NY, Harper Business , 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 432 pages. B&w and color illustrations. Small remainder line on bottom edge. In his much-anticipated memoir, The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty, Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of The Estee Lauder Companies Leonard A. Lauder shares the business and life lessons he learned as well as the adventures he had while helping transform the mom-and-pop business his mother founded in 1946 in the family kitchen into the beloved brand and ultimately into the iconic global prestige beauty company it is today. In its infancy in the 1940s and 50s, the company comprised a handful of products, sold under a single brand in just a few prestigious department stores across the United States. Today, The Estee Lauder Companies constitutes one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of prestige skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. It comprises more than 25 brands, whose products are sold in over 150 countries and territories. This growth and success was led by Leonard A. Lauder, Estee Lauder's oldest son, who envisioned and effected this expansion during a remarkable 60-year tenure, including leading the company as CEO and Chairman.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 336 pages. In a world where nearly everyone has a cellphone camera capable of zapping countless instant photos, it can be a challenge to remember just how special and transformative Polaroid photography was in its day. And yet, theres still something magical for those of us who recall waiting for a Polaroid picture to develop. Writing in the context of two Polaroid Corporation bankruptcies, not to mention the obsolescence of its film, Peter Buse argues that Polaroid was, and is, distinguished by its processby the fact that, as the New York Times put it in 1947, the camera does the rest. Polaroid was often dismissed as a toy, but Buse takes it seriously, showing how it encouraged photographic play as well as new forms of artistic practice. Drawing on unprecedented access to the archives of the Polaroid Corporation, Buse reveals Polaroid as photography at its most intimate, where the photographer, photograph, and subject sit in close proximity in both time and spacemaking Polaroid not only the perfect party camera but also the tool for frankly salacious pictures taking. Along the way, Buse tells the story of the Polaroid Corporation and its ultimately doomed hard-copy wager against the rising tide of digital imaging technology. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Hardcover. Walburg Pers, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 192 pages illustrated in color and b&w. A study about the development of a company founded in Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden Age. The VOC, as it was called, was a joint venture company of the Dutch in controlling trade in the world. This scientific paper is one of the main references in terms of research on VOC History. Clean copy.

Hardcover. US, Harper Design, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 224 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Color / Black and white pictures throughout.

Hardcover. Brussels, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light blue cloth stamped in dark blue, 58 pages. An illustrated history of the Belgian financial institution. Tipped in color frontis of founder Samuel Lambert, b&w photos and illustrations. Text in English. A promotional piece. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Plainview NY, Jelmar Publishing, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in glossy pictorial boards, 508 pages, b&w illustrations. Ink underlining to about 25 pages, otherwise clean, tight copy. Highly technical guide to all kinds of printing for commercial products.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 414 pages, b&w illustrations. Explores the history of the Teamsters up through the 1970's by looking at the subject from the perspective of a number of the key players -- one at a time. A novel yet very effective approach to a large and complicated subject. The book proves to be both informative and entertaining. Remainder stamp to bottom edge, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2nd pr., 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 233 pages, b&w illustrations. From the minute it opened--on Christmas Day in 1865--it was Chicago's must-see tourist attraction, drawing more than half a million visitors each year. Families, visiting dignitaries, even school groups all made trips to the South Side to tour the Union Stock Yard. There they got a firsthand look at the city's industrial prowess as they witnessed cattle, hogs, and sheep disassembled with breathtaking efficiency. At their height, the kill floors employed 50,000 workers and processed six hundred animals an hour, an astonishing spectacle of industrialized death. Slaughterhouse tells the story of the Union Stock Yard, chronicling the rise and fall of an industrial district that, for better or worse, served as the public face of Chicago for decades. Dominic A. Pacyga is a guide like no other--he grew up in the shadow of the stockyards, spent summers in their hog house and cattle yards, and maintains a long-standing connection with the working-class neighborhoods around them. Pacyga takes readers through the packinghouses as only an insider can, covering the rough and toxic life inside the plants and their lasting effects on the world outside. He shows how the yards shaped the surrounding neighborhoods and controlled the livelihoods of thousands of families. He looks at the Union Stock Yard's political and economic power and its sometimes volatile role in the city's race and labor relations. And he traces its decades of mechanized innovations, which introduced millions of consumers across the country to an industrialized food system. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Sussex, Denham House, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 57 pages. Hardcover. Previous owners stamp on front endpaper. Clean, unmarked text. Light wear.

Hardcover. Los Angeles, Angel City Press, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, illustrated boards, 100 pages. We may never be able to toast Frank Sinatra with a Flame of Love martini, join Jimmy and Gloria Stewart over calf's liver and onions, or share a steaming bowl of Boiled Beef Belmont with the President and Mrs. Reagan on Tuesday nights. But we can come close. CHASEN'S has every great recipe that kept the stars coming back for more, plus its fascinating text stirs delivers the dish on the restaurant and its famous fans. Recipes include the world famous Chasen's Chili that Elizabeth Taylor had air-freighted to the Cleopatra set in Italy, the Chicken Pot Pie served to Queen Elizabeth, the Shirley Temple cocktail that Chasen's bartender invented for the curly-topped star, and a host of other favorites including Deviled Beef Bones, Banana Shortcake, Sole Hitchcock, Coupe Snowball, and the dish President Reagan always ordered, Boiled Beef Belmont.

Hardcover. Hoboken NJ, John Wiley, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 367 pages, with illustrations. Like Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Marshall Field was one of the overlords of capitalism in the Gilded Age of the late 19th C. His wealth and philanthropy masked a disastrous personal life. Alienated from his children, deserted by his wife, he left a legacy of immense wealth and misery. This multigenerational saga of money, madness, and mystery tells a Jekyll-and-Hyde story of American capitalism--a tale of drive and nerve and moral stumbles. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Lawrence KS, Coronado Press, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 217 pages, green cloth over boards. Limited to 400 copies. The author was a scholar on the banking business in the early American west, especially Kansas.

Hardcover. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 168 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in shrink wrap. Color and black & white images throughout. Tight copy.

New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 375 pages including index, color and b&w illustrations. When George Washington embarked on his presidential tours of 1789?-91, the rudimentary inns and taverns of the day suddenly seemed dismally inadequate. But within a decade, Americans had built the first hotels?, large and elegant structures that boasted private bedchambers and grand public ballrooms. This book recounts the enthralling history of the hotel in America?a saga in which politicians and prostitutes, tourists and tramps, conventioneers and confidence men, celebrities and salesmen all rub elbows. Hotel explores why the hotel was invented, how its architecture developed, and the many ways it influenced the course of United States history. The volume also presents a beautiful collection of more than 120 illustrations, many in full color, of hotel life in every era. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Washington DC, Middle East Institute, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 529 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Scribner, Armstrong and Co., 1st US, 1873, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brick-red cloth stamped in gilt and black. 359 pages, publisher's ads in rear. First US edition with 1873 date on title page. Described by J. M. Keynes as "an undying classic", Lombard Street analyses the operation of the British financial system, focusing on the economic role of the Bank of England. Bagehot's recommendation that the Bank alter gold reserves based on economic cycles was highly influential, and the book was considered authoritative into the 20th century. Thre is mild rear to top and bottom of spine, corners bumped, otherwise clean and tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 360 pages, b&w illustrations. Tells the fascinating story of the family that built the mighty Dodge empire and grew into a powerful and wealthy dynasty and became plagued by excesses and scandal. Embossed stamp to half-title page otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York, Simon & Schuster, First Edition, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 370 pages. Hardcover. Red & black cloth boards with gilt titles to spine. Dust jacket with light marginal wear to edges. Clean & unmarked copy.

Hardcover. NY, Flatiron Books, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 288 pages. Most any honest person can own up to harboring at least one fast-food guilty pleasure. In Drive-Thru Dreams, Adam Chandler explores the inseparable link between fast food and American life for the past century. The dark underbelly of the industry's largest players has long been scrutinized and gutted, characterized as impersonal, greedy, corporate, and worse. But, in unexpected ways, fast food is also deeply personal and emblematic of a larger than life image of America.With wit and nuance, Chandler reveals the complexities of this industry through heartfelt anecdotes and fascinating trivia as well as interviews with fans, executives, and workers. He traces the industry from its roots in Wichita, where White Castle became the first fast food chain in 1921 and successfully branded the hamburger as the official all-American meal, to a teenager's 2017 plea for a year's supply of Wendy's chicken nuggets, which united the internet to generate the most viral tweet of all time.

Hardcover. NY, Blue Rider Press, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 583 pages. The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America's most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. In light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing "fake news" accounts, the handling of its users' personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO--who has enormous power over what the world sees and says--never has a company been more central to the national conversation. Millions of words have been written about Facebook, but no one has told the complete story, documenting its ascendancy and missteps. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life, or the imperative of this book to document the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, to developing a platform so addictive even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers. Dj crease in production, clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Shell Oil Company, 1947, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 782 pages plus appendix and vocabulary in rear. Leather covers, text pages two-hole punched for updating. Many photographs and diagrams in text. About 40 loose sheets laid in which are 1949 updates to various pages. Some light pencil notations in text, a little dusty but sound.

Hardcover. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 168 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in shrink wrap. Color and black & white images throughout. Tight copy. Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power traces the path of this remarkable early feminist and visionary art patron. In Rubinstein's world, art and commerce blended seamlessly. She ornamented her salons and homes with splendid artworks--Surrealist murals, modernist portraits, Art Deco furniture, Venetian mirrors, and one of the era's great collections of African and Oceanic art. Her understanding of beauty was similarly expansive and democratic: she saw the face as the site for self-expression and the exploration of identity. The Rubinstein beauty program thus included not only makeup and hairdressing, but also lessons in health, deportment, and culture. Such features, innovative at the time and wildly popular, today provide a fascinating glimpse into popular culture as it affected women in the 20th century.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, James Gopsill's Sons, 1st, 1897, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 581 pages, includes many ads. Black cloth spine with ad-illustrated cardboard covers. Covers edgeworn, interior bright and clean.

Hardcover. Cheltenham UK, Edward Elgar Publishing, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in glossy pictorial boards, 264 pages. Here the example of the Russian oil industry in the context of transition from a planned to a market economy is used to develop a three-stage framework for organisational transformation. Four longitudinal case studies of Russian oil companies are drawn upon to explain the process of organisational transformation. The book highlights how and why this process differs between companies within the same industry, explores the complexity of the change process and discusses the importance of the top management team. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1938, Book: Very Good, Softcover, blue wraps, 6 3/4 x 10 inches, 22 pages of text + 24 pages of plates (photos). Account of the massive effort to restore telephone service after the devastating hurricane of September 21, 1938. Clean copy, mild musty odor.

Softcover. Charleston WV, Morrison Department Store, 1928, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, stapled tan wrappers, 72 pages. A brochure featuring the history of a line of department stores in West Virginia. The founder's philosophy laid out in boring detail. Interesting, great photos of his storefronts, store managers. Unusual.

Softcover. Philadelphia, PA, N. W. Ayer & Son, 1st, 1909, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 60 pages. Dark green covers, gilt titles to front and spine, cloth endpapers. Light edgewear to covers, faint watermarks to front, pages crisp and unmarked; overall, a very neat, tight copy of an unusual book.

Hardcover. London, Quin Press Ltd., 2nd Ed., 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, bright blue cloth with gilt lettering on cover and spine, 800 pages. A cornucopia of information about steel and iron production in the mid-1950s. A comprehensive global review of plants worldwide. Include producers of pig-iron, raw steel, rolled products, tinplate, etc. Ads from various companies throughout the listings. Valuable historic information on tonnage produced in the period. Excellent condition, clean. Due to size and weight, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Philomel Books, 4th pr., 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket with mild fad to spine. The long-enduring American legend of Johnny Appleseed comes to life in the glorious folk illustrations and spirited storytelling of Will Moses. Everyone knows the story of Johnny Appleseed: how he traveled westward across our young country, spreading apple trees wherever he went and wearing outlandish hats, like a soup pot, on his head. But did you know that Johnny Appleseed was a real person? Born John Chapman in 1774, he grew up in a family of twelve children, and as a young man, struck out to find the frontier. It was along this journey that he discovered the wonders of apple trees, and where he had his life adventures. In the tradition of his great-grandmother, Grandma Moses, Will Moses's much-loved folk art perfectly illustrates this American tale.

Hardcover. New York, Henry Holt and Co., 1st, January 22, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 306 pages. Minor wear to dust jacket. Small remainder mark on bottom edge. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Softcover. NY, Bell System Telephone/AT&T, 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 32 page booklet with green wrappers, promoting historical facts about the telephone. B&w line illustrations throughout, Stapled, 10 x 6.75".

Softcover. Detroit MI, Burroughs Adding Machine Company, 1st, 1910, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Gray cardboard covers with brown cloth spine, two-color title label on front. 179 page booklet promoting their new product-an adding machine. Illustrated with photos (several in color) and diagrams and charts. This is the original printing of 1910. Small name on half-title page, otherwise clean, sound.

Hardcover. Fort Worth,TX, P&T Publishing Co., 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, History and Development of Printing Presses from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 297 pages plus index and glossary. B&w illustrations. Previous owner's name and date on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York, George H. Doran, 2nd pr., 1925, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Early reprint. No Doran colophon, 1925 on (C) page but publisher's decorative device on title page. Green cloth, gilt lettering on spine faded otherwise clean, tight.

Hardcover. NY, Basic Books, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Credit-card debt is choking American prosperity off at the neck. In Credit Card Nation, Robert D. Manning tells a fascinating story about the present and future consequences of credit dependence across all strata of U.S. society. Through extensive interviews with consumers, Manning talks to debtors, and to average Americans, affected by what Manning describes as our "credit card nation": an American juggernaut of indebtedness that spans personal, corporate, and governmental debt. 406 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Simpkin Marshall , 23rd Ed., 1918, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, olive green limp cloth, 362 pages. Vintage book on basic bookkeeping. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York , Business Plus, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 244 pages. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on half-title page. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Viking Kestrel, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Color illustrations by Letizia Galli. The animals on the Ark become restless and forgetful until the wise goats remind them of their roles before the flood. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 318 pages. From the time they emerged in American cities in the 1820s, commercial luxury hotels were far more than places where a traveler could eat and sleep-they were icons of style, opulence, and technological sophistication. Molly W. Berger offers a compelling history of the American hotel and how it captured the public's imagination as it came to represent the complex-and often contentious-relationship among luxury, economic development, and the ideals of a democratic society. From New York to San Francisco and points in between, Berger profiles the country's most prestigious hotels, including Boston's 1829 Tremont, which served as a model for luxury hotel design; San Francisco's world famous Palace, completed in 1875; and Chicago's enormous Stevens, built two years before the great crash of 1929. The fascinating stories behind their design, construction, and marketing reveal in rich detail how these buildings became cultural symbols that shaped the urban landscape. Clean copy.

Softcover. Boston, Harvard Business School, 1st wraps, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Articles: U.S. Advertising in Latin America, Industrial Structure: the American Pottery Industry, Selling Elegant Glassware, etc. Paperback.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 184 pages. Color photographic endpapers (soda pop bottles), 36 full-color photographs and 41 b&w photos. Here is the fascinating history of America's love affair with soda-pop - and particularly Coco-Cola - with clear examples of their developing range of popular memorabilia .. drink trays, press ads, bottles, drink dispensers, posters, transport vehicles, pendants, badges, and even lampshades!

Hardcover. Cincinnati OH, self-published, 1st, 1908, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth stamped in white. 96 pages with ads in rear for marble and granite. B&w frontis of author. Name on inside front cover otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Indianapolis/ New York, Bobbs-Merrill, reprint, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn dust jacket, 464 pages, b&w illustrations. First published in 1940, a fascinating look at the oil industry as it was pre-World War 2. "Here is the romantic story of a unique and all-important industry, told with the informality and charm of an evening's chat by an open fire. So significant to our life has oil become that wars have been fought for it, and wars may be lost for want of it". Small sticker to front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York, Knopf, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 307 pages. Black & white photography. Minor wear to dust jacket, else a very nice, tight copy.

Liggett and Myers Tobacco, 1944, Book: Very Good,

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st pbk, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 366 pages. In this lively study, Rachel Sherman goes behind the scenes in two urban luxury hotels to give a nuanced picture of the workers who care for and cater to wealthy guests by providing seemingly unlimited personal attention. Drawing on in-depth interviews and extended ethnographic research in a range of hotel jobs, including concierge, bellperson, and housekeeper, Sherman gives an insightful analysis of what exactly luxury service consists of, how managers organize its production, and how workers and guests negotiate the inequality between them. She finds that workers employ a variety of practices to assert a powerful sense of self, including playing games, comparing themselves to other workers and guests, and forming meaningful and reciprocal relations with guests. Through their contact with hotel staff, guests learn how to behave in the luxury environment and come to see themselves as deserving of luxury consumption. These practices, Sherman argues, help make class inequality seem normal, something to be taken for granted. Throughout, Class Acts sheds new light on the complex relationship between class and service work, an increasingly relevant topic in light of the growing economic inequality in the United States that underlies luxury consumption. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 590 pages. Investigative reporting exposes the oil companies' complete control over the supplies and shortages during the 1970s. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 356 pages. One of the world's largest tyre makers and an international corporation with interests in countries around the world, Michelin is also a uniquely French company, one that throughout its history has closely identified itself with the country's people and culture. In the process, it has helped shape the self-image of 20th-century France. This volume offers a provocative history of the company and its innovative advertising campaigns between 1898, when Bibendum - the company's iconic "Michelin Man" - was first introduced, to 1940, when France fell to the Nazis and the company's top executive, Edouard Michelin, died. Both events indelibly changed the company and the national context in which it operated. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Robert M. McBride, 1st, 1935, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 314 pages, hardcover, b&w photographs. Fascinating account of the Strikebreaker King who was hired by manufacturers in the 1930s to cripple (sometimes literally) the efforts of striking workers. Frontispiece loose, ex-library copy, light soil to covers, overall good.