Mansel G. Blackford – författare

With its white sandy beaches, lush green uplands, and near-perfect weather, the Hawaiian island of Maui is more than a picture postcard: it is a multi-million-dollar tourist attraction that repeatedly has been voted ""best island in the world"" by Conde Nast Traveler readers. Consider, then, the bumper sticker seen on residents' cars in recent years: ""If it's tourist season why can't we shoot them?"" From its modest beginnings in the prewar era, tourism has become the most important segment of Maui's economy since the 1970s. But as Mansel Blackford shows, it is also a devil's bargain. By switching the island's income base from sugar cane to condos, tourism has offered a solution to economic problems but has also placed an unanticipated strain on Maui's infrastructure and made unexpected demands of its residents. Now as roads and sewers have reached their limits and escalating property values have ousted long-timers, the growth of the ""visitor industry"" has forced the people of Maui to make difficult choices about the future development of their island. Fragile Paradise chronicles the growth - and the growing pains - of the tourist economy on Maui. Blackford takes us into the heart of this island paradise to reveal the complexity of economic and environmental issues, especially as perceived by Maui's residents over the past four decades. He examines issues surrounding land-use policies, water development, electrical power generation, and transportation - particularly the controversy over the expansion of the Kahului Airport. He then shows how these issues came together in the development of two communities: the booming resor area of South Maui and the agricultural Upcountry Maui. Blackford also reveals the human side of tourism, through interviews with islanders representing both sides of the growth issue. Blackford's study shows how people living on a far western American frontier view their economic and physical environments and how they have sought to shape them. By addressing a number of crucial issues, from race and ethnicity to ""quality of life"" environmentalism, it offers a microcosm of the tourism industry that has implications for other travel destinations and for the economic future of the Pacific Rim.

From the colonial era to the present day, small businesses have been an integral part of American life. First published in 1991 and now thoroughly updated, this study explores the central but ever-changing role played by small enterprises in the nation's economic, political and cultural development. Examining small businesses in manufacturing, sales, services and farming, Mansel Blackford argues that while small firms have always been important to the nation's development, their significance has varied considerably in different time periods and in different segments of the American economy. Throughout, he relates small business development to changes in America's overall business and economic systems and offers comparisons between the growth of small business in the United States to its development in other countries. He places special emphasis on the importance of small business development for women and minorities.

The Rise of Modern Business compares and analyzes the development of business and business institutions in several countries from the preindustrial era to the present. Paying close attention to connections between business development and political, social, and cultural changes, Blackford addresses both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms, small firms as well as big businesses. For this third edition, he updates his study in light of new scholarship, with special attention paid to the structural diversity of business firms and with a timely discussion about the reciprocal relationship between business and the environment. The business history of Germany is extensively updated, and there is entirely new coverage of the business history of China, a country whose growing political and economic prowess on the world stage demands the historical and contextual understanding of business scholars today.

In Land Hunger, Mansel G. Blackford explores the central role of land use in the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and Euro Americans as the new nation expanded westward from Ohio to the Oregon Country. Blackford emphasizes how people adapted to new and changed environments and focuses on key themes related to environmental and frontier studies: the land-use interactions between Native Americans and outsiders, the influence of government policies, and the impact of earlier concepts about the ownership and use of land and water that continue to affect us today in the face of climate change.The first part of the book delves into Euro American and African American settlement in the Ohio Country during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Driven by “Ohio fever” and influenced by a blend of pragmatic, romantic, and capitalistic ideals, tens of thousands crossed the Appalachian Mountains to settle and farm in an unfamiliar land. It was in Ohio and the Midwest that many Americans developed their views on land and the environment, and where the new federal government devised methods for surveying and selling claimed lands. Subsequent chapters analyze how Ohioans and others attempted to apply Midwest-born ideas and practices in the Oregon Country and the Great Plains-regions with significantly different environments-with limited success.Land Hunger defines “frontiers” as zones of interaction between distinct groups of people, offering a broad interpretation of these contested spaces. The book explores how frontiers were depicted in fiction, where their portrayal helped establish their meaning and significance to incoming Americans. Blackford examines diaries, letters, and reminiscences, as well as a broad range of scholarly studies in this historical synthesis.

In Land Hunger, Mansel G. Blackford explores the central role of land use in the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and Euro Americans as the new nation expanded westward from Ohio to the Oregon Country. Blackford emphasizes how people adapted to new and changed environments and focuses on key themes related to environmental and frontier studies: the land-use interactions between Native Americans and outsiders, the influence of government policies, and the impact of earlier concepts about the ownership and use of land and water that continue to affect us today in the face of climate change.The first part of the book delves into Euro American and African American settlement in the Ohio Country during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Driven by “Ohio fever” and influenced by a blend of pragmatic, romantic, and capitalistic ideals, tens of thousands crossed the Appalachian Mountains to settle and farm in an unfamiliar land. It was in Ohio and the Midwest that many Americans developed their views on land and the environment, and where the new federal government devised methods for surveying and selling claimed lands. Subsequent chapters analyze how Ohioans and others attempted to apply Midwest-born ideas and practices in the Oregon Country and the Great Plains-regions with significantly different environments-with limited success.Land Hunger defines “frontiers” as zones of interaction between distinct groups of people, offering a broad interpretation of these contested spaces. The book explores how frontiers were depicted in fiction, where their portrayal helped establish their meaning and significance to incoming Americans. Blackford examines diaries, letters, and reminiscences, as well as a broad range of scholarly studies in this historical synthesis.