glyph 187: books . otto scott . compass ... tools, hand tools, power tools . business, enterprise ... where things come from, how things get in the world ... 1914 drill

The Powered Hand: The History of Black & Decker, 305 pages, including Notes and Index, Uncommon Books, Seattle, Wash., 1994.

The following description of The Powered Hand is found at: http://the-compass.com/books.htm

This is an unvarnished but admiring history of the rise of the world's greatest toolmaker. This includes all its vicissitudes from 1910 until 1986. Its present CEO, Nolan Archibald, a contemporary man, refused to have his own tenure described. But the dismissal of two of his predecessors at the helm is included. So is the working lifetimes of former CEO's S. Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker, Robert Black and Alonzo Decker, Jr.

We note that business histories are held in literary disdain in modern America, just as are businessmen in general. Otto Scott considers that a stupid opinion. Our civilization is sustained by businessmen, just as the barons and the bishops built the civilization of the Middle Ages.

Literary types prefer poets and troubadours. But these did not protect the peasants from danger, nor build the castles and cathedrals, water mills, or towns. Businessmen today are the true heirs of the barons. They employ the scientists as well as the artists of our time.

To fail to understand and respect those who sustain families and work is to turn against the realities of our lives. No serious writer does that.

Other books by Otto J. Scott:

• The Great Christian Revolution, The Reformer Library, 1995.
• Robespierre: The Fool as Revolutionary, Mason & Lipscomb, 1974, repr. by The Reformer Library, 1995.
• The Secret Six: John Brown and the Abolitionist Movement, New York Times Book Co., 1979, repr. by The Foundation for American Education, 1987, repr. by Uncommon Books, November, 1993, paper.
• The Powered Hand: The Story of Black & Decker, Uncommon Books, 1994.
• Buried Treasure: The Story of Arch Mineral, Braddock, 1991.
• James I: The Fool as King, Mason Charter, 1976, repr. Ross House Books, 1986.
• The Other End of the Lifeboat, Regnery, 1985.
• The Creative Ordeal: The Story of Raytheon, Atheneum, 1976.
• The Professional: A Biography of J. B. Saunders, Atheneum, 1976.
• The Exception: The History of Ashland Oil, McGraw Hill, 1968.

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entered before July 9, 2006