Sir John Templeton or Reluctant Capitalists

Sir John Templeton: Supporting Scientific Research for Spiritual Discoveries

Author: Robert L Herrmann

The Extraordinary Life of Sir John Templeton, now in his 90s, is updated in this revised edition of his biography. Here is the story of his childhood in rural Tennessee, education at Yale and Oxford, the legendary years during which he was christened the "wizard of Wall Street," his receiving Mutual Fund's Lifetime Achievement Award, and being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. This book also focuses on Sir John's mission: to encourage a major scientific effort to obtain solid empirical data about spiritual realities, such as love, purpose, creativity, intellect, thanksgiving, prayer, humility, praise, thrift, compassion, invention, truthfulness, giving, and worship. Today his mission is carried out by the John Templeton Foundation through an ever-growing, wide range of programs and grants. These include programs that stimulate the teaching of university courses in science and religion, worldwide lecture programs organized around the concept of humility theology, and prizes for articles and essays that advance spiritual understanding and character development. This book also introduces some of the scientists, theologians, philosophers, writers, and fellow investors who now serve as staff and advisors to the John Templeton Foundation.

Go to: Barguments or Joy of Pickling

Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption

Author: Laura J Miller

Over the past half-century, bookselling, like many retail industries, has evolved from an arena dominated by independent bookstores to one in which chain stores have significant market share. Yet unlike other retail industries, bookselling, many people believe, should be “above” questions of profit. In Reluctant Capitalists, Laura J. Miller investigates what drives this belief and how it is affected by the changing retail environment.

Miller argues that the independent/chain dynamic is not entirely new—it started a century ago when department stores began selling books and has culminated in the advent of Internet marketplaces. Miller uses interviews with bookstore customers and members of the book industry to explore how these changes have met resistance from book professionals and readers who believe that the book business should somehow be ethically superior to market forces. In the process, she also teases out the meanings of retailing and consumption in American culture at large, underscoring her point that any type of consumer behavior is inevitably political, with consequences for communities as well as commercial institutions.

“Chain superstores, notes Laura J. Miller's fascinating new study Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, are the latest manifestation of a centuries-old struggle between bookselling Davids and Goliaths—a battle over where Americans actually shop versus stores with, Miller tartly notes, 'a style of retailing that Americans at least profess to miss.’”—Voice Literary Supplement

Publishers Weekly

Though independent booksellers may believe they already understand all that there is to know about maintaining the delicate balance between economic success and cultural integrity, those who dip into Miller's impressive examination will find their curiosity well rewarded. Miller's historical analysis reveals, for example, how independent booksellers' opposition to mass market competitors has shifted dramatically. Nearly a century ago, when department stores and five-and-dimes began selling books, the owners of established bookstores insisted that large commercial enterprises couldn't guide customers to suitably uplifting reading material. As the cultural elitism behind this argument became unpalatable, the indies changed their tune, claiming that superstores were laying down homogenized inventories that stifled intellectual diversity. Miller also discusses the internal pressures that led the American Booksellers Association to adopt a more activist stance toward the chains in recent years. One of the book's few disappointments is a closing chapter on consumption as political choice, which never quite explains how such choices operate. But that's a rare ambiguity in this otherwise carefully articulated investigation. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     ix
Commercial Culture and Its Discontents     1
From Dry Goods Merchant to Internet Mogul: Bookselling through American History     23
Providing for the Sovereign Consumer: Selecting and Recommending Books     55
Designing the Bookstore for the Standardized Consumer     87
Serving the Entertained Consumer: The Multifunction Bookstore     117
Bargaining with the Rational Consumer: Selling the Low-Cost Book     141
The Revolt of the Retailers: Independent Bookseller Activism     161
Pursuing the Citizen-Consumer: Consumption as Politics     197
Ownership Histories of Major American Chain Bookstores     231
Notes     237
Bibliography     283
Index     299