I wrote some time ago on my own blog about the business book revolution that began, by my reckoning, in 1982. I thought it might be interesting to devoted business book readers:
The rise in popularity of business books is what management guru Peter Drucker might have called both a “recent phenomenon” and “totally unprecedented.” One of the interesting things about the business book market—despite its incredible resilience—is how it has tended to fluctuate with the stock market and the overall economy.
Take the lackluster 1970, for example. During that decade, before the business book revolution, companies hunkered down, just trying to survive Watergate, an oil embargo, recessions, low productivity rates and double-digit interest rates. Few of us in business book publishing can name even one great business book to come out of that period. The stock market lost well over half of its inflation-adjusted value between 1968 and 1974, and another six percent by July of 1982 (the Dow hovered around 800 in mid-’82). The bears ran rampant on Wall Street for 14 years.
The next decade did not start much better—but then came 1982.
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