A brief history of entrepreneurship : the pioneers, profiteers, and racketeers who shaped our world / Joe Carlen.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Brief History of Entrepreneurship charts how the pursuit of profit by private individuals has been a prime mover in revolutionizing civilization. Entrepreneurs often butt up against processes, technologies, social conventions, and even laws. So they circumvent, innovate, and violate to obtain what they want. This creative destruction has brought about overland and overseas trade, colonization, and a host of revolutionary technologies--from caffeinated beverages to the personal computer--that have transformed society.

Consulting rich archival sources, including some that have never before been translated, Carlen maps the course of human history through nine episodes when entrepreneurship reshaped our world. Highlighting the most colorful characters of each era, he discusses Mesopotamian merchants' creation of the urban market economy; Phoenician merchant-sailors intercontinental trade, which came to connect Africa, Asia, and Europe; Chinese tea traders' invention of paper money; the colonization of the Americas; and the current "flattening" of the world's economic playing field.

Yet the pursuit of profit hasn't always moved us forward. From slavery to organized crime, Carlen explores how entrepreneurship can sometimes work at the expense of others. He also discusses the new entrepreneurs who, through the nascent space tourism industry, are leading humanity to a multiplanetary future. By exploring all sides of this legacy, Carlen brings much-needed detail to the role of entrepreneurship in revolutionizing civilization.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Carlen (cofounder, Know Thy Market, LLC; The Einstein of Money), a certified valuation analyst, here covers the leaders in entrepreneurship throughout history, from the Fertile Crescent to Mesopotamia, producing an outline of business creation and individual success. The forms and tools of business development are chronicled along with the various top producers of the art for a period. Geography and the evolution of transportation plus the diverse innovations in commerce all played a part. Phoenicia, Greece, and even Rome had important roles. The Arabs and monks added their efforts, and the Chinese occupied a significant position. These led to Western Europe's influence and domination, the Industrial Revolution, and the leadership of Great Britain and the United States. Finally, the author discusses the flattening of the world and globalization as well as looking beyond the Earth into space. VERDICT Carlen's enlightening book considers many aspects of the historical development of entrepreneurship and will attract business-minded readers.-Littleton Maxwell, Robins Sch. of Business, Univ. of Richmond © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Carlen has provided an overview of the evolution of entrepreneurship from ancient times to the present. He brings insight to Mesopotamian merchants' creation of an urban market economy, the invention of paper money by Chinese tea traders, the role of entrepreneurs in European colonization from the 16th through 19th centuries, and the recent startups offering interplanetary space tourism. The history begins with the end of the Stone Age, when the exchange of luxury items from far-flung places began, as evidenced by the distribution of such items as marine shells and ostrich eggs. The Phoenicians are described as "pollinators" who spread the products of the Mediterranean and western Asia across that expanse. The entrepreneurial impulse, guided by imagination, energy, and shrewdness, is seen as "the forerunner of momentous transformation, an instigator of significant changes that extend well beyond the realm of industry." Entrepreneurs throughout history served as catalysts of huge developments, such as the democratization of the automobile. Sometimes entrepreneurs have been wildly innovative technologically. At other times the innovation is in how a product or service is made, distributed, or delivered. Entrepreneurs will come to better understand who they are and what they do by reading this book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals. --Charles Wankel, St. John's University, New York