Introduction

It is a pleasure to again welcome readers to a new volume of Enterprise and Society. With this new volume, No. 21, Enterprise and Society enters its third decade. This journal was established as a forum for encouraging innovation in the discipline of business history whilst maintaining the highest standards of historical scholarship. The journal has consistently asked new questions of business history and has published worked that has taken the discipline to new places: thematically; methodologically and conceptually; and in terms of time and place. We have helped forge alliances with other disciplines, both within and beyond history. Enterprise and Society is been an integral part of the process through which business history has been radically reinvented over the last two decades.

I am tremendously excited to be able to bring this first issue of a new volume to our readers. I believe this suite of articles exemplifies the vision of what business history can be that has motivated the journal from its foundation. They are ambitious, curious, insightful, and thoughtful. They bring new perspectives into play. The issue carries eight full research articles and there is truly something for everyone. From Jennifer Delton’s deft exploration of the strange tale of how the National Association of Manufacturers tried to write their own organizational history to Jessica Levy’s powerful study of the career of Leon Sullivan. From Karin Lurvink’s sobering account of Dutch slave insurance to Caleb Wellum’s engaging study of the collision of oil crises and neo-liberalism. Elsewhere Veronica Binda takes us through a comparative study of fashion trends in Italy and Spain; Christian Marx unpacks the history of management and labor relations in the Western European chemical industry; Miriam Kaminishi and Andrew Smith examine Western perceptions of Chinese entrepreneurship in the Treaty Port; and, finally, Michael Aldous takes us through the governance challenges faced by the eighteenth-century insurance industry. And, of course, thanks to the diligent and imaginative work of Reviews Editor Alex Beasley, the research articles are complemented by a rich and diverse range of book reviews.

This issue, I think, represents a feast for the intellect. Enjoy!