The First Conglomerate: 145 Years of the Singer Sewing Machine Company

Rating:
Summary: the history and influence of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.
Review: On the grounds of extensive research, Bissell makes the case that the Singer Sewing Machine Company was a leader in the industrialization leading to rising standards of living for the masses of average persons, beginning in the U. S. in the decades before the Civil War and continuing well into the 20th century. The Company was a leader not only in developing the sewing machine providing well-made, mass-produced clothing, but also in creating a large labor force, implementing progressive employee and business practices, and standing as a model for other companies formed in the course of industrialization. Indeed, the Singer Sewing Machine Company was so successful and so respected over a wide area of the globe that in the language of many Third World countries, the word singer is used for the noun sewing-machine and the verb to sew.

Bissell follows the history of the Company mostly by profiles of its succession of presidents focusing in their perspectives and practices as they faced different economic and social circumstances in the long history of the Company. Singer1s reputation and success suffered a severe setback in 1987 after a hostile takeover by Paul Bilzerian, who was later indicted on tax and securities violations. Only in the past five years or so has Singer been able to recover from this and regain something of its former prominent position. For following the Singer Sewing Machine Company from its founding until today, Bissell1s history of this major American Company is the definitive book on this subject.

Henry Berry, Book Reviewer

Editor/Publisher, The Small Press Book Review

Rating:
Summary: the history and influence of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.
Review: On the grounds of extensive research, Bissell makes the case that the Singer Sewing Machine Company was a leader in the industrialization leading to rising standards of living for the masses of average persons, beginning in the U. S. in the decades before the Civil War and continuing well into the 20th century. The Company was a leader not only in developing the sewing machine providing well-made, mass-produced clothing, but also in creating a large labor force, implementing progressive employee and business practices, and standing as a model for other companies formed in the course of industrialization. Indeed, the Singer Sewing Machine Company was so successful and so respected over a wide area of the globe that in the language of many Third World countries, the word singer is used for the noun sewing-machine and the verb to sew.

Bissell follows the history of the Company mostly by profiles of its succession of presidents focusing in their perspectives and practices as they faced different economic and social circumstances in the long history of the Company. Singer1s reputation and success suffered a severe setback in 1987 after a hostile takeover by Paul Bilzerian, who was later indicted on tax and securities violations. Only in the past five years or so has Singer been able to recover from this and regain something of its former prominent position. For following the Singer Sewing Machine Company from its founding until today, Bissell1s history of this major American Company is the definitive book on this subject.

Henry Berry, Book Reviewer

Editor/Publisher, The Small Press Book Review

Rating:
Summary: A memorable testament to the workings of corporate America.
Review: The Singer Sewing Machine Company was founded by womanizing polygamist Isaac Merritt Singer who invented the first practical sewing machine, but was also an eccentric, dissolute, profane, abusive and emotionally-weak philander. He maintained polygamous arrangements with at least three young women (other reports contend he managed five young wives at one time), supported and additional six mistresses, and frequented prostitutes as well. All this time his sewing machine and the company he created to build and market it prospered into one of the largest, most cash-rich international companies on earth. For the next 140 years, a succession of enlightened corporate leaders kept this great multinational company one step ahead of its many competitors. By the 1970s, the company emerged as a major space age defense contractor and preeminent business equipment maker. But within a few years time, the company fell into the hands of avaricious profiteers. The new owner (an undercapitalized corporate raider) quickly squandered the company's assets on his own vanishing financial empire. A sell-off ran this once powerful and model corporation to waste. Fascinating and informative, The First Conglomerate: 145 Years Of The Singer Sewing Machine Company reads with all the drama of a great American novel, and stands as a memorable testament to the workings of corporate America down to the present day.