Security and Insecurity in Business History: Case Studies in the Perception and Negotiation of Threats

Business history has so far examined the 'security' of enterprises primarily from the perspective of risk. The contributions in this volume apply the approach of historical security studies to business history and examine cases of dynamic historical negotiations of security since the late 19th century. In line with the assumptions of historical security research, we assume that the meaning of 'security' was negotiated in concrete historical situations and therefore cannot be explained solely from businesses' focus on market risks. Rather, their perception of risk and danger was governed by the historically changing 'grammar of security'.