The Shareholder Movement: Shareholder Activism in the Twentieth Century with Brian Sarginger

Hagley History Hangout

The Shareholder Movement: Shareholder Activism & Activists in the Twentieth Century with Brian Sarginger Gregory Hargreaves interviews Brian Sarginger about his dissertation project “The Shareholder Movement: Shareholder Activism & Activists in the Twentieth Century.” In support of his work, Sarginger, a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, received exploratory and Henry Belin du Pont research grants from the Hagley Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society. In “The Shareholder Movement,” Sarginger traces the rise of shareholder activism as a factor in the structure of American corporate power, shifting control of firms away from management and toward a growing body of public investors. Shareholder activists organized around institutional investors with disproportionate influence, and leveraged advantages of scale to pursue their interests. Sarginger suggests that twentieth-century shareholder activism reveals a set of values wider than simple return maximization, including multiple social issues from employment to the environment. For more Hagley History Hangouts, and information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society visit us online at hagley.org.