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BestsellerE-book
Author Davis, Joshua Clark, author.

Title From head shops to Whole Foods : the rise and fall of activist entrepreneurs / Joshua Clark Davis.

Publication Info. New York : Columbia University Press, [2017]

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xiv, 314 pages) : illustrations.
text file
Series Columbia studies in the history of U.S. capitalism
Columbia studies in the history of U.S. capitalism.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Introduction -- Activist business: origins and ideologies -- Liberation through literacy: African American bookstores, Black Power, and the mainstreaming of black books -- The business of getting high: head shops, countercultural capitalism, and the battle over marijuana -- "The feminist economic revolution": businesses in the women's movement -- Natural foods stores: environmental entrepreneurs and the perils of growth -- Perseverance and appropriation: activist business in the twenty-first century -- Conclusion.
Summary In the 1960s and '70s, a diverse range of storefronts-including head shops, African American bookstores, feminist businesses, and organic grocers-brought the work of the New Left, Black Power, feminism, environmentalism, and other social movements into the marketplace. Through shared ownership, limited growth, and workplace democracy, these "activist entrepreneurs" offered alternatives to conventional profit-driven corporate business models. By the middle of the 1970s, thousands of these enterprises operated across the United States-but only a handful survive today. Some, like Whole Foods Market, have abandoned their quest for collective political change in favor of maximizing profits. Vividly portraying the struggles, successes, and sacrifices made by these unlikely entrepreneurs, Clark Davis writes a new history of movements and capitalism by showing how activists embraced small businesses in a way few historians have considered. The book rethinks the widespread idea that the work of activism and political dissent is inherently antithetical to business and market activity. It uncovers the historical roots of contemporary interest in ethical consumption, social enterprise, mission-driven businesses, and buying local while also showing how today's companies have adopted the language-but not often the mission-of liberation and social change.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Business enterprises -- Political aspects -- United States -- History.
Business enterprises -- Political aspects.
United States.
History.
Business enterprises.
Small business -- Political aspects -- United States -- History.
Small business.
Entrepreneurship -- Political aspects -- United States -- History.
Entrepreneurship.
Social movements -- Economic aspects -- United States -- History.
Social movements.
Business and politics -- United States -- History.
Business and politics.
Genre/Form History.
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
Subject Social movements.
Other Form: Print version: Davis, Joshua Clark. From headshops to whole foods. New York : Columbia University Press, [2017] 9780231171588 (DLC) 2016050678 (OCoLC)974794470
ISBN 9780231543088 (electronic book)
0231543085 (electronic book)
9780231171588 (hardcover ; alkaline paper)
0231171587 (hardcover ; alkaline paper)
Standard No. 10.7312/davi17158