Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump (CACM)
Hello SIGCIS, Hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday. I just wanted to let you all know that my short article "Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump" just appeared in the Jan 2018 issue of Communications of the ACM. ACM agreed to make this one open access, in hopes of reaching a broader audience: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2018/1/223891-defining-american-greatness/ful ltext. Thanks to Jim Cortada for comments, and to Bill Aspray who has recently stepped down from many years of editorial work helping to shepherd historical material into Communications. The argument is that IBM founder Thomas Watson Sr. and Donald Trump have a surprising amount in common, including an obsession with "greatness," but that the ways in which they differ tell us a lot about how America, and global capitalism, have changed over the past century. This seemed like a chance to make IBM's long history seem more relevant, and, when the parallels become more explicit in the conclusion, to approach Trumpism from a relatively novel direction. Also, it finishes with Leonard Cohen, which may be another first for CACM. Hopefully the computer scientists are not going to complain. There is a SIGCIS connection: the piece is deeply informed by a pair of panels on IBM I organized via the SIGCIS list for the Business History Conference a few years ago (Frankfurt meeting). The argument that IBM had been a "model corporation" in different eras comes from the talk I developed for that panel. This argument is combined here with details from my ongoing work with Petri Paju on the history of IBM in Europe (our article "IBM's Tiny Peripheral: Finland and the Tensions of Transnationality" should be out early next year in Business History Review). Best wishes, Tom
Thanks, Tom. After reading your article, I would echo your sentiment when you confess to "feeling more fond of vain, pompous old Thomas Watson Sr., and the empire he created, than I ever thought possible." As you point out, Leonard Cohen did say it best. Nice timing for releasing the article I think. A year into this, it is time to take stock. Your article is a very helpful contribution as we all take a deep breath and prepare for 2018. Will be sharing with colleagues and friends as we ring in the new year! Michael On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 3:32 PM, Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello SIGCIS,
Hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday. I just wanted to let you all know that my short article “Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump” just appeared in the Jan 2018 issue of Communications of the ACM. ACM agreed to make this one open access, in hopes of reaching a broader audience: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2018/1/223891- defining-american-greatness/fulltext. Thanks to Jim Cortada for comments, and to Bill Aspray who has recently stepped down from many years of editorial work helping to shepherd historical material into Communications.
The argument is that IBM founder Thomas Watson Sr. and Donald Trump have a surprising amount in common, including an obsession with “greatness,” but that the ways in which they differ tell us a lot about how America, and global capitalism, have changed over the past century. This seemed like a chance to make IBM’s long history seem more relevant, and, when the parallels become more explicit in the conclusion, to approach Trumpism from a relatively novel direction. Also, it finishes with Leonard Cohen, which may be another first for CACM. Hopefully the computer scientists are not going to complain.
There is a SIGCIS connection: the piece is deeply informed by a pair of panels on IBM I organized via the SIGCIS list for the Business History Conference a few years ago (Frankfurt meeting). The argument that IBM had been a “model corporation” in different eras comes from the talk I developed for that panel. This argument is combined here with details from my ongoing work with Petri Paju on the history of IBM in Europe (our article “IBM’s Tiny Peripheral: Finland and the Tensions of Transnationality” should be out early next year in Business History Review).
Best wishes,
Tom
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Let me add, with my prejudice of having spent over 38 years at IBM, that Tom has tapped into a very large issue of how powerful influential people affect organizations and societies. My study of Watson Sr. suggests Tom is spot on: two confident managers willing to take responsibility for "making things happen," but in the case of Watson with a greater dignity and sense of values (my apologies to those who appreciate President Trump, this is all relative). I have grown to admire Watson Sr. even more as I have worked on writing a history of IBM (almost finished). In the process, I have concluded that Watson Jr. was an even better executive than his father--perfect for his time--and more for historians, that his brother, Arthur, is a deeply under appreciated if tragic figure. Tom, congratulations on a thoughtful, indeed useful, piece of writing. Jim On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 4:59 PM, Dr. Michael Dobe, Sr. < michael.dobe@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks, Tom. After reading your article, I would echo your sentiment when you confess to "feeling more fond of vain, pompous old Thomas Watson Sr., and the empire he created, than I ever thought possible." As you point out, Leonard Cohen did say it best.
Nice timing for releasing the article I think. A year into this, it is time to take stock. Your article is a very helpful contribution as we all take a deep breath and prepare for 2018. Will be sharing with colleagues and friends as we ring in the new year!
Michael
On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 3:32 PM, Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello SIGCIS,
Hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday. I just wanted to let you all know that my short article “Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump” just appeared in the Jan 2018 issue of Communications of the ACM. ACM agreed to make this one open access, in hopes of reaching a broader audience: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2018/1/223891-defining- american-greatness/fulltext. Thanks to Jim Cortada for comments, and to Bill Aspray who has recently stepped down from many years of editorial work helping to shepherd historical material into Communications.
The argument is that IBM founder Thomas Watson Sr. and Donald Trump have a surprising amount in common, including an obsession with “greatness,” but that the ways in which they differ tell us a lot about how America, and global capitalism, have changed over the past century. This seemed like a chance to make IBM’s long history seem more relevant, and, when the parallels become more explicit in the conclusion, to approach Trumpism from a relatively novel direction. Also, it finishes with Leonard Cohen, which may be another first for CACM. Hopefully the computer scientists are not going to complain.
There is a SIGCIS connection: the piece is deeply informed by a pair of panels on IBM I organized via the SIGCIS list for the Business History Conference a few years ago (Frankfurt meeting). The argument that IBM had been a “model corporation” in different eras comes from the talk I developed for that panel. This argument is combined here with details from my ongoing work with Petri Paju on the history of IBM in Europe (our article “IBM’s Tiny Peripheral: Finland and the Tensions of Transnationality” should be out early next year in Business History Review).
Best wishes,
Tom
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/ listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382
participants (3)
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Dr. Michael Dobe, Sr. -
James Cortada -
Thomas Haigh