Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics(SUNY series in Ethnicity and Race in American Life)

In this book, author John Sibley Butler traces the unique development of business enterprises and other community organizations among Black Americans from before the Civil War into the present. He compares these efforts to other strong traditions of self-help among groups such as Japanese-Americans, Jewish Americans, and Greek-Americans. The author also shows how the higher education of Black children is already a valued tradition among Black self-help groups—such that today their offspring are more likely to be third and fourth generation college graduates. Butler challenges the myth that nothing can be done to salvage America's underclass without a massive infusion of public dollars, and offers a fresh perspective on those community based organizations and individuals who act to solve local social and economic problems.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. The Sociology of Entrepreneurship 2. Race and Entrepreneurship: A Respecification 3. "To Seek for Ourselves": Benevolent, Insurance, and Banking Institutions 4. Entrepreneurship under an Economic Detour 5. Durham, North Carolina: An Economic Enclave 6. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Business Success and Tragedy 7. The Reconstruction of Race, Ethnicity and Economics: Toward a Theory of the Afro-American Middleman 8. The Present Status of Afro-American Business: The Resurrection of Past Solutions 9. Conclusion and Policy Implications Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
John Sibley Butler is Professor of Sociology and Management at The University of Texas at Austin. He holds the Dallas TACA Centennial Professorship in Liberal Arts and the Arthur James Douglass Centennial Professorship in Entrepreneurship and Small Business in the College of Business. He is the editor of the National Journal of Sociology, and is an Adjunct Fellow to the National Center for the Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE), a research and demonstration organization based in Washington, D.C.

Review :
"There are four areas in this book that I especially like: the sociohistorical analysis on the sociology of entrepreneurship; the insight provided on the contextual conditions that have influenced entrepreneurship in the Black community; the theoretical discussions that are clearly presented and well integrated throughout the text; and the extensive documentation. The data are fascinating. "This book is one of a kind. I commend the author on the scholarship of this work. It is a great contribution to sociology, history, and the field of business. It will also contribute to policymaker's understanding of societal and contextual factors that influence the development of business in the Black community."—Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, The University of North Carolina-Greensboro "This book provides a wealth of data that undermines many of the myths and misconceptions concerning the historical and contemporary status of Black business. It provides a needed theoretical corrective to the growing literature on ethnic entrepreneurship that presents Black Americans as exceptions to the process of upward mobility through self-employment."—Cedric Herring, Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago