Veblen & Universities: The Concept of the Corporation Chapt 1

Again, Drucker is putting the corporation in the context of national security. He quotes, though he does not really make the argument, that we may come to see the world wars as a response to the rise of the corporation. He also argues that the only other large institutions that have appeared in the years between 1900 and 1946 , the labor union and the government agency, are responses to the rise of the corporation. He fails to mention the university but that is connected as well. I can recall a colleague who made that argument in a seminar a few years ago, quoting Veblen in his defense. When another colleague argued that it shouldn’t be that we, the original speaker replied, perhaps it shouldn’t but it is.