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by Kenneth Hopper
and William Hopper



Where does the Protestant work ethic come from? And how did America achieve such dominance in management for so long?

In March 2007, the brothers Hopper set out to answer this question in their book: ‘THE PURITAN GIFT - Triumph, Collapse and Revival of an American Dream’ (IB Tauris and Palgrave Macmillan). This book also predicted the Credit Crunch which was to engulf the world in the autumn of 2008, suggesting that the solution to that problem would lie in restoring the values and practices that underlay America's earlier success. Predictions >> (pdf, 24 KB)

There is no substitute
for knowledge.
W. Edwards Deming, Washington DC (1993)
- quote from the book

C A R T O O N

‘Pepper and Salt’ cartoon by Sauer, Wall Street Journal - click for caption

Short video
describing the book

N E W S   F L A S H

• The first two hardback prints having sold out, an elegant paperback is now available with a new subtitle: ‘THE PURITAN GIFT - Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos’. Place an order today!

B R O A D C A S T S   A N D   R E V I E W S

• Kenneth and William Hopper have been appointed Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (15 - 31 August 2009), which overlaps with the Edinburgh International Festival of the Performing Arts. On the evening of Monday August 17, William will engage in a public debate with Gillian Tett and John Kay of the Financial Times, chaired by the Bishop Richard Holloway, on the motion that The End of the World Has Been Postponed. At 2.30 pm on Wednesday August 19, both authors will give readings from 'The Puritan Gift' in the Peppers Theatre.
• On June 22, 2009, Will Hopper addressed the Athenaeum, a leading London club, on the collapse of managerial culture which underlay the current Great Recession. One of those attending wrote afterwards: 'Few of us can have been made to think so radically by a single speaker'. Download speech (pdf, 52 KB) >>
• On June 17, 2009, Will Hopper spoke in French to Les Soirées Francophones de Belsize Park on the subject of the current Financial Bubble. Download address (pdf, 42 KB) >>
• On May 31, 2009, Simon Caulkin of the London Sunday Observer, said that THE PURITAN GIFT was 'bold, original and agreeably opinionated.' Download review (pdf, 30 KB) >>
• On Wednesday May 20, 2009, Will Hopper gave the keynote address on the subject of 'The Puritan Gift' at the annual Transformation Forum organised by the Deming Society at Wyboston Lakes, Bedfordshire, England.
• On Monday May 11, 2009, at a ceremony in London, William was presented with an Award in Recognition of a Lifetime Achievement in Private Equity by Susan Boedy, John Cook and Kurt Geiger on behalf of the Thunderbird School of Management, Phoenix, Arizona.
• On Sunday, March 29, Will Hopper was interviewed by Stephen Crittenden of ABC Radio National in Australia along with Prof. Henry Mintzberg and others in a series called Background Briefing . Hear 'MBA - Mostly Bloody Awful'. The programme lasted 50 minutes; Will can be heard from minute 12 to 24 and from minute 30 to 33.
• On Monday March 16, Will Hopper was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on BBC NEWSNIGHT concerning the Credit Crunch, along with Andy Brough, manager of the Schroder UK Mid 250 Fund and William Daley, U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1997 to 2000 and part of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Download the podcast of this prime-time TV programme (12.8 MB).
• March 14, 2009: in a thirty-minute podcast interview with the authors, Chris Gondek/Heron & Crane (Portland, Oregon) described 'The Puritan Gift' as 'an extraordinary book'. Download mp3 file >>
• March 11, 2009: Annabelle Quince of Australian Broadcasting Corporation interviewed Will Hopper and three others on 'Management Culture and Gurus: their Part in our Downfall' for her series, ‘Rear Vision’.
  Hear the full thirty-minute audio >>
  For a short edited transcript comprising observations by Will Hopper (pdf, 32 KB),
  click here >>
• March 9, 2009: Ruth Rach of Deutschlandfunk interviewed Will Hopper in a programme called 'Abschied von der City; der Niedergang des Londoner Finanzviertels' (Bye Bye Square Mile; the Decline of London's Financial Quarter'). Click here for interview voiced over in German (mp3, 13 MB); and here for an edited transcript in English and German (pdf, 28 KB).
• March 9, 2009: Andrew Billen reviewed 'The Puritan Gift' in a London 'Times' article: 'Goodbye to glib gurus and their gobbledegook'. Download the pdf (17 KB) >>
• Other Reviews and Broadcasts >>