Skip to main content

Harvard Business School

The university struggled to define what a school of business should teach. What is the knowledge required for success?

Villains are important, and an institution that supplies us with villains performs an essential service. Take the Harvard Business School.
A letter written by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1818 is my second-favorite business letter. Vanderbilt was then twenty-four, and he wrote to his employer, Thomas Gibbons, the owner of a ferry that ran between New Brunswick and New York City, about a competitor named Letson.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this magazine of trusted historical writing, now in its 75th year, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate