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The Merchant Princes: Family, Fortune and Philanthropy - Cadbury, Sainsbury and John Lewis
 
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The Merchant Princes: Family, Fortune and Philanthropy - Cadbury, Sainsbury and John Lewis (Paperback)

by Carol Kennedy (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Hutchinson; First Edition edition (23 Mar 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0091784476
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091784478
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 260,827 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Examines in detail three great British trading houses: the Sainsburys, Cadburys and Lewises. This book traces their very different styles of management, business ethics, social conscience and philanthropy.


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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Carol Kennedy misses the point about genetics, 28 Jun 2000
By A Customer
Carol Kennedy may or may not have written accurate histories of three of the most important business / retailing dynasties in Britain, but she has certainly revealed in this book her cringingly poor understanding of genetics and the influence of genes on the individual.

The content of the book makes fascinating reading as far as the history of British business goes and it is wonderful to take a look inside families which are still household names today and have influenced the social fabric of Britain so comprehensively. The families involved in Marks & Spencer are an obvious omission from the study.

Carol Kennedy's back catalogue is made up almost exclusively of books on business and management. She would have done well in this book to have steered clear of trying to put a fashionable genetic spin on her work, or to have gained a good grounding in genetics before beginning this project. The book contains numerous genetic howlers and parts of it read like a 1920s book on the now thoroughly discredited science of eugenics. She falls into the classic trap of assuming that socially constructed ideas reflect individual genes with phrases such as "provisioning was in their genes". What is a gene for provisioning? She also falls into some classic racial eugenics with phrases like "the Welsh genes remained strong". What are Welsh genes? This kind of analysis leaves no room for environmental factors in the development of individuals, such as inherited wealth, growing up in a business environment, having a good education or having a significant leg-up into big business. Or simply having the name Cadbury, Lewis or Sainsbury. Furthermore it would be naive to believe that good business-people reflect only genetic superiority (if genes are involved in business success at all). The very same attributes that make for business success could just as easliy be labelled greed and ruthlessness as they can ambition and motivation. Parts of this book seem to perpetuate eugenic ideas that were popular in the 1920s and are finding popularity again through simplistic understandings of advances in modern genetics.

This book is good on business and family history and poor on genetics. Those who want to understand the errors in Carol Kennedy's thinking should read books by Daniel Kevles, Steven Rose or Stephen Jay Gould.

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