This collection of Peter F. Drucker's essays explores the intersection
between society, politics, and economics.
Despite this lofty goal, however, the essays themselves remain down to earth,
highly readable, and full of stories and ideas that make us think differently about the
business world around us.
The majority of these essays were written in the 1960s, and in them Drucker
specifically examines that turbulent decade, yielding conclusions that are as timeless as
they are fresh. He places the merger mania of the decade in the context of business
history of the twentieth century, and arrives at fundamental questions about mass market
economies. He questions the personal and political values of 1960s adolescents, and ends
up relating them to the concurrent rise of big complex modern institutions. He examines
with equal vigor Japan's management successes, the role of politics and economics in
American identity, and the "real" Kirkegaard.
Table of Contents
Preface
One The New Markets and the New Entrepreneurs 1
Two The Unfashionable Kierkegaard 47
Three Notes on the New Politics 63
Four This Romantic Generation 89
Five Calhoun's Pluralism 101
Six American Directions 121
Seven The Secret Art of Being an Effective President 137
Eight Henry Ford 151
Nine The American Genius Is Political 167
Ten Japan Tries for a Second Miracle 177
Eleven What We Can Learn from Japanese Management 195
Twelve Keynes: Economics as a Magical System 227
Thirteen The Economic Basis of American Politics 243
Index 261
336 pages, Hardcover