Thoughts on BHC 2016

If Donald Trump represents the worst aspects of the United States, the Business History Conference represents the very best.  At the BHC, American philanthropy, American academic excellence, and American creativity come together to produce a genuinely impressive annual event that attracts business historians from around the world. It is always inspirational to come to the BHC to see top quality researchers present their findings. In the metrics-focused, over-managed UK higher education sector, the research institutions tend to incentivize volume of publications over creativity in research, normal science over truly innovative research.  That’s not the case in the US. It is very healthy hanging around North American academics who manage to combine good research, dedicated teaching, and vibrant non-work lives. The absence of the REF system in North America makes workaholic tendencies less common in the US than the UK sector, in general.

This year, the organizers of the BHC made…