Teaching History in Business Schools: 1982–2003

Abstract

A long tradition in business schools is teaching the history of business or business disciplines. However, surveys over the past quarter century suggest that such teaching is becoming less common—to the detriment of our students, particularly doctoral students. We trace that tradition and present the results of two major surveys that indicate a current decline in teaching the history of business disciplines. We offer reasons and examples to support our position that we need to study history not only to gain a historical perspective but also the ability to think critically about current problems.