(This monumental work on the corporation is one of those e...)
This monumental work on the corporation is one of those enduring classics that many cite but few have read. Graced with a new introduction by Weidenbaum and Jensen, this new edition makes this classic available to a new generation. Written in the early 1930s, The Modern Corporation and Private Property remains the fundamental introduction to the internal organization of the corporation in modern society. Combining the analytical skills of an attorney with those of an economist, Berle and Means raise the central questions, even when their answers have been superseded by changing circumstances.The book's most enduring theme is the separation of ownership from control of the modern corporation and its consequences. Berle and Means display keen awareness of the divergent interests of directors and managers, and of each from owners of the firm. Among their predictions are the characteristic increase in size of the modem corporation and concentration of the economy. The authors view stock exchanges and stock markets as essential by-products of the rise of the modem corporation, and explore how these function. They address the difficult questions of whether corporations operate for the benefit of owners or managers, and explore what motivates managers to make effective use of corporate assets. Finally, they examine the role of the corporation as the prevailing form of organizing the production and distribution of goods and services.In their new introduction, Weidenbaum and Jensen, co-directors of the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University, critically assess the impact of developments not fully anticipated by Berle and Means, such as the rise of the service sector, and the significant role played by institutional investors in the owner/manager equation. They note the authors' prescient observations, including the complex role of and motivating influences on professional managers, and the significance of inside information on stock markets. As they note, The Modern Corporation and Private Property remains of central value to all those concerned with the evolution of this major social institution of the twentieth century. Scholar and practitioner alike will find it of enduring significance.
(This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)
This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for kindle devices. We have endeavoured to create this version as close to the original artefact as possible. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we believe they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
Adolf Augustus Berle was a lawyer, diplomat, and author. He was also President Franklin Roosevelt's adviser.
Background
Adolf Berle was born on January 29, 1895, in Boston, Massachussets, United States. He was the second of four children of Adolf Augustus Berle, a Congregational minister and author, and Mary Augusta Wright, a former missionary among the Sioux.
Education
Adolf graduated from the high school at age twelve and then had to wait two years before matriculating at Harvard. He graduated cum laude (1913). After earning the Master of Arts degree (1914), he obtained the Bachelor of Laws degree from the Harvard Law School (1916), becoming, according to his biographer, "the youngest graduate in its history. "
Career
About 1916 Berle joined Louis D. Brandeis's law firm as an apprentice in 1916, but enlisted in the army as a private the following year, and within two weeks became a second lieutenant. After a stint at the Army War College in Washington, D. C. , he was assigned to the Dominican Republic on inactive duty in order to work for the New York law firm of Rounds, Hatch, Dillingham, and Debevoise, straightening out Dominican landholding laws. He also worked for army intelligence. In the fall of 1918, Berle was assigned to the Russian Section of the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. Dissatisfied with the conference's anti-Bolshevik stance and with the peace treaty's harsh treatment of Germany, he resigned from the delegation in May 1919 but, as an army officer, had to wait a month to be demobilized.
Upon returning to New York, Berle joined the Rounds firm. In 1924 he and a friend established their own practice, Lippitt and Berle, and in 1933 he joined with his brother, Rudolf, to form the firm with which he practiced until his death. His specialties and those of the firms he helped organize were corporate law and Latin American affairs. Interested in teaching, the multifaceted Berle taught one day per week at the Harvard Business School (1925 - 1928). In 1927, he joined the faculty of Columbia University's law school, which remained his "intellectual home" until he retired in 1966. Even while in government service he continued to hold classes there.
A prolific, innovative writer, Berle throughout his life produced a flood of articles, pamphlets, and reviews, many dealing with the changing nature of America's economy and power structure. His first article in the Harvard Law Review (1917) dealt with the then-new concept of administrative law. His first of more than a dozen works, Studies in the Law of Corporation Finance (1928), anthologized some of his work on aspects of the corporation. The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932), written with the economist Gardiner C. Means, has been called "one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. "
Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Berle to advise him during the 1932 presidential election campaign. Berle - whose commitment to public service had involved him during the 1920's with New York City's Henry Street Settlement House and with the American Indian Aid Association, in an effort to restore their lands to the Navajos in New Mexico - became a close associate of Roosevelt. After Roosevelt's victory, Berle took no official post but did offer advice and comment on various pieces of legislation. He also served briefly as financial adviser to the American embassy in Havana, on Cuba's financial crisis. Although without formal appointment, the contentious Berle remained a close adviser to the president, who cherished his "adventurous mind. " Berle also advised Fiorello La Guardia in his successful bid for the mayoralty of New York City in 1933, subsequently serving (1934 - 1937) as city chamberlain.
In 1938 Berle became assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs. Initially the appointment had implications for domestic policy: a strong advocate of planning had been appointed at a time when antitrust sentiment was growing. But Berle concentrated on foreign affairs. Participating in various inter-American conferences, he took an active role in implementing the Good Neighbor policy and, after World War II broke out in 1939, successfully promoted "collective security in the hemisphere. " He also laid the groundwork for the postwar development of the St. Lawrence Seaway, negotiated with Allied governments in exile, penned drafts of government statements on the international situation, and in 1944 chaired an international conference that helped set the course of postwar civil aviation worldwide.
As administrator of State Department intelligence, Berle met with former Communist agent Whittaker Chambers (1939); the anti-Soviet Berle, however, did not react to Chambers's tales of subversion by Alger Hiss and others; indeed, he did not turn over Chambers's information to the FBI until 1941. Berle did not escape the bitter internal strife that rent the State Department in the early 1940's. Moreover, his ties with Roosevelt grew weaker as the president made increased use of other advisers. Berle had been valued for his superior intellect and superb analytical skills, but in 1944 he was forced to resign, having used up his political capital. He then served as ambassador to Brazil (1945 - 1946).
Berle returned to his law practice and teaching, with various forays into public service. As chairman (1947 - 1955) of New York's newly organized Liberal party (a breakaway from the now Communist-dominated American Labor party), Berle was an effective spokesman, but policy generally was set by the garment unions, which financially supported the new party. The staunchly anti-Soviet Berle was in contact with the Central Intelligence Agency, and while his influence was limited, during the early 1950's he was active in such agency "fronts" as Radio Free Europe and the National Committee for a Free Europe. He chaired the board of trustees of the Twentieth Century Fund (1951 - 1971), seeking "to influence American development toward a more effectively just civilization. "
Berle's writing commanded respect and attention until his death in New York City, but his impact lessened over time. His continuing interest in hemispheric problems and involvement with democratic Latin American intellectuals and political figures led to service as chairman of President John F. Kennedy's Interdepartmental Task Force on Latin America (January-July 1961). Its recommendations resulted in the Alliance for Progress, an ultimately unsuccessful program designed to advance economic and political democracy in Central and South America through cooperative efforts. Berle's strong disapproval of Cuba's pro-Soviet head, Fidel Castro, led him to support the ill-fated Bay of Pigs incursion, which failed to rouse anti-Castro Cubans. Berle died in 1895 in New York.
Berle was a founding member of the New York State Liberal Party.
Personality
Berle was a child prodigy who lived up to his promise. With his lively, keen intellect and tremendous capacity for work, he carried on a number of careers simultaneously and successfully. He was not humble. Even Roosevelt wondered whether Berle was worth the trouble. But as a critic once conceded, Berle was "a public servant and political economist extraordinary. "
Connections
On December 11, 1927, after a two-year courtship, Berle married Beatrice Bend Bishop, daughter of the elegant, tough-minded investor and book collector Cortlandt Field Bishop. Strongly opposed to the marriage, Bishop disinherited his daughter in 1928; ten years later she obtained her rightful portion of the estate through a lawsuit. She was a perfect consort for Berle: an intelligent, dynamic woman, she graduated from Vassar (1923), received an M. A. in history from Columbia (1924), earned an M. D. from New York University (1938), and practiced medicine for many years. The Berles had three children.