Our Business Civilization

In Our Business Civilization, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James Truslow Adams delivers a sharp and thoughtful critique of early 20th-century American society. With incisive essays first published in leading magazines of the 1920s, Adams explores how business values and the pursuit of profit came to dominate nearly every aspect of American life—shaping its ethics, culture, and intellectual priorities. He contrasts the American experience with that of Europe, where older institutions such as the aristocracy, church, and professions balanced economic ambitions with cultural depth.Adams raises urgent questions about materialism, the erosion of ethical standards, and the narrowing of social values in a business-dominated culture. This work remains strikingly relevant today, offering listeners a historical lens through which to consider the persistent tensions between commerce, culture, and the human spirit.