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Paper short abstract:

Changing views of environmental & business historians on corporate history are revealed by a retrospective examination of TIMBER AND MEN focusing on (1) Entrepreneurship; (2) Innovation; (3) Globalization; (4) Business & the Environment; (5) The Role of Governments; (6) Business & Democracy.

Paper long abstract:

TIMBER AND MEN -- the 700 page history of the Weyerhaeuser group authored in 1963 by Hidy, Hill, Nevins -- deals substantively with the six subject areas recommended in 2011 by leading business historians: Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Globalization, Business & the Environment; the Role of Government; Business & Democracy. What changing views of environmental & business historians on corporate history are revealed by analyzing not only the book's conclusions, but also the research methods & practices of key participants. Earlier, F. K. Weyerhaeuser, who kept close tabs on the research project funded by his firm under a contract with Columbia University, had declared: We let people rave about the wicked Weyerhaeuser corporation . . . [and] it's not true . . . . If I ever get to have any power in business you bet I'm not going to let anyone talk that way about me or my Co. without calling for a showdown." Should TIMBER AND MEN be categorized merely as a sophisticated stockpile of PR ammunition for F.K.'s showdown -- even though contemporary scholarly reviews described TIMBER AND MEN as "a magnum opus" resulting from a massive effort let by Pulitzer winner Allan Nevins? Yet Greta Thunberg suggests a "cultural turn" which can be reflected in a historiographical assessment. Can Weyerhaeuser's first century of corporate behavior within the capitalist economic order be re-evaluated in keeping with Greta's characterization of the pursuit of economic progress as a destructive goal -- which thus might lead to a discussion of degrowth strategies?