Book Review: The Enjoyment of Reading Books

'Marketing' by Edmund Brown Jr. (1925), is an interesting representative of the kind of books on marketing written early in this century. It is highly informative and conveys a wonderful picture of the nature of marketing at that time. Pursuing more recent developments led me to the respected work of Wroe Alderson. His 'Marketing Behavior and Executive Action' (1957) gave me a broad theoretical approach, argued in a richly detailed and insightful manner. Engel, Kollat, and Blackwell's major textbook about 'Consumer Behavior' broke onto the scene in 1968. This was an excellent compendium. Among other volumes about marketing that are important in my development, I would list 'The Theory of Buyer Behavior' by John A. Howard and Jagish N. Sheth (1969) and 'Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control' by Philip Kotler (1967). There are certainly many other tomes that have influenced me; the mention of a few authors brings to mind the domains of ideas by Robert Barrels (1988), who is one of our great historians of marketing thought; I had to look to see if he mentioned me. There was Jerome McCarthy (1960) and the four Ps, essential to a beginning marketing professor. Sleuart Henderson Britt (1970) was an inspiration with his books on psychological aspects of consumer behavior. Shelby Hunt's (1991) work on the philosophy of marketing science always set my own ruminative juices flowing.