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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Oxford Centre for Global History Author Oenone Kubie

1. Gossip, Corporate Reputation, and the 1905 Life Insurance Scandal in New York

Author:
Oenone Kubie, Rebecca Orr, Mara Keire, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
On the evening of 31 January 1905, six hundred of the richest and most powerful members of New York society descended on Sherry’s Hotel dressed in extravagant costumes designed to resemble the court of the French King, Louis XV. The wealth on display was astounding. Pearls, emeralds, turquoise, and diamonds abounded. Mrs Potter Palmer, the queen of Chicago society, appeared dressed in a diamond tiara, diamond choker, and diamond breastplates. Mrs Clarence Mackay, wife of the chairman of the Postal Telegraph Company and a suffragist, wore a gold and turquoise crown and the train of her dress was so long, that despite the help of her two pages, she was forced to sit out the dancing.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, History, Capitalism, and Multinational Corporations
Political Geography:
United States, New York, France, and Global Focus

2. Nestlé’s Corporate Reputation and the Long History of Infant Formula

Author:
Lola Wilhelm, Oenone Kubie, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
The demand for infant formula in Australia is insatiable. Bare shelves have led supermarkets and chemists to ration sales, limiting the quantity customers can buy in a single transaction. But it’s not Australian parents fuelling the formula shortages. A high proportion, between fifty and ninety percent, of all Australian infant formula is exported to China. The situation has created tensions between the two countries. Australian shoppers complain of Chinese daigou (personal shoppers) buying formula before it is even stacked on shelves and stripping supermarkets in teams of people. In April 2019, eight people were arrested in Australia for stealing over a million dollars of infant formula in Sydney to sell in China. Two months later, Chinese military personnel were photographed loading boxes of formula onto a Chinese warship before departing Sydney Harbour.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, History, Capitalism, and Multinational Corporations
Political Geography:
China, Australia, and Global Focus

3. The Birth of the Modern Chinese Banking Industry: Ri Sheng Chang

Author:
Vivid Lam, Oenone Kubie, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Pingyao (平遥) is a remote place for a tourist attraction. Located in the centre of Shanxi province, it is some 380 miles from Beijing and further from Shanghai or Hong Kong where the tourists tend to congregate. Yet, despite the isolation, come they do to Pingyao. The nearest airport to Pingyao is in Tiayuan, over one hundred kilometres away, so most visitors arrive by coach or by train; along the poorly paved streets and past the decaying houses until they arrive in the middle of the city. Here the tourists disembark from their coaches and their trains and find themselves transported to the days of the Qing dynasty emperors, surrounded by imperial architecture. The tourists wander slowly towards West Street. This is the home of the most popular attraction: the headquarters of Ri Sheng Chang (日昇), a late Qing company which revolutionised Chinese banking, now a museum and an increasingly busy tourist attraction. This is the story of how it came to be and how the little city in a small province in China rose to prominence, became the financial centre of the world’s largest economy, fell to obscurity and, now, rises again.
Topic:
Development, International Trade and Finance, History, Capitalism, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

4. The Chicago Merchandise Mart: How the World’s Largest Commercial Building Fueled an American Political Dynasty

Author:
Kevin M. Higgins, Oenone Kubie, Courtney Bruno, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Spanning 4.2 million square feet, two city blocks, and rising twenty-five stories high, the Merchandise Mart – the largest commercial building in the world – stands on the northern bank of the Chicago River. From the merchandising Hall of Fame in front of the Mart, one can watch passing architectural tours admiring the impressive Art Deco exterior of the building. These days, the Mart is home to high-end designers, advertising firms, and, increasingly, tech companies and start-up incubators. Within its vast interior, the industries of the Third Industrial Revolution have taken hold. Yet, when the Mart opened on 5 May 1930, no economic revolution was already established. By the early 1900s, the Second Industrial Revolution had brought assembly lines to factories, and the disassembly line to Chicago’s slaughterhouses, and it had seen electrification, telegraphs, and the railroads span the North American continent. But the revolution was already slowing by the third decade of the twentieth century. What had revolutionised industry in the nineteenth century now served as commonplace and not until well after the Second World War would Americans feel the first stirrings of another revolution as computation, telecommunications, and genetics again transformed the economy.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Capitalism, Commodities, Manufacturing, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
United States and Chicago

5. Organ Transplants at Cedar Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and the Third Industrial Revolution

Author:
Oenone Kubie, Christopher McKenna, and Steven Yamshon
Publication Date:
08-2017
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Cedars Sinai Hospital does not serve an everyday clientele. Situated in the West Hollywood neighbourhood in Los Angeles, the non-profit hospital caters to the rich and glamourous – a ‘hospital to the stars’. It was there that Madonna received hernia surgery and Frank Sinatra suffered a fatal heart attack. More recently, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West chose the hospital for the birth of their daughter. However, the hospital is famous for more than its celebrity patients. Cedars Sinai has a history of innovation and has often sought to be a world leader of medical research. In 2010, Tom Priselac, the long-time Chief Executive Officer of the Cedars Sinai Health System was presented with the opportunity to add to this history of innovation and establish a prestigious center for heart transplants at Cedars Sinai. To do so would position Cedars Sinai at the forefront of cardiac research. On the other hand, to establish the specialisation would require a huge investment which Priselac might better use elsewhere in the medical center. The decision required Priselac to consider the competitiveness of the hospital within the Los Angeles healthcare landscape, the logic of creating a specialisation, and the future of healthcare within a global economy.
Topic:
Health Care Policy, Capitalism, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, California, and Los Angeles