Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction
Search in google:
Listen to a short interview with Thomas McCrawHost: Chris Gondek \| Producer: Heron & CranePan Am, Gimbel's, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland—all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. "Creative destruction," he said, is the driving force of capitalism.Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most sophisticated conservative" of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril—to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter's view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind.During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983—the centennial of the birth of both men—Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate.Prophet of Innovation is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were the conflicts between his reason and his emotions. Drawing on all of Schumpeter's writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world's greatest economist, lover, and horseman—and admitted to failure only with the horses. Jay Hancock - Baltimore Sun [A] persuasive and eloquent biography.
Preface ixPart I L'Enfant Terrible, 1883-1926: Innovation and EconomicsPrologue: Who He Was and What He Did 31 Leaving Home 102 Shaping His Character 233 Learning Economics 384 Moving Out 575 Career Takeoff 676 War and Politics 847 Gran Rifiuto 1048 Annie 1139 Heartbreak 126Part II The Adult, 1926-1939: Capitalism and SocietyPrologue: What He Had Learned 14510 New Intellectual Directions 15111 Policy and Entrepreneurship 16712 The Bonn-Harvard Shuttle 18413 Harvard 20514 Suffering and Solace 222Part III The Sage, 1939-1950: Innovation, Capitalism, and HistoryPrologue: How and Why He Embraced History 24715 Business Cycles, Business History 25116 Letters from Europe 27917 To Leave Harvard? 30218 Against the Grain 31319 The Courage of Her Convictions 32620 Alienation 33721 Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy 34722 War and Perplexity 37523 Introspection 39924 Honors and Crises 40925 Toward the Mixed Economy 42226 History of Economic Analysis 44227 A Principle of Indeterminateness 46928 L'Envoi 485Epilogue: The Legacy 495Notes 507Acknowledgments 695Illustration Credits 699Index 703
