The 200 Year History of American Virtue Capitalism

Time​ Magazine

23-07-2025

Since the re-election of President Donald Trump, many prominent American corporations, including Amazon, Meta, and Target, have abandoned their diversity efforts just a few years after launching them in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests. As The Washington Post reported, a study of 500 large companies revealed that last year saw the fewest DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) references in corporate financial statements since 2020.
But other organizations, such as Apple, Costco, and Delta Air Lines, have committed to maintaining DEI programs—despite the possibility of government investigations and consumer boycotts.
These values-based organizations are part of a long—albeit often controversial—history in the U.S. of businesses expressing social beliefs in the marketplace. Traditionally, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, these social beliefs primarily stemmed from religious beliefs. As the 20th century progressed, however, a greater array of social beliefs began to animate business practices for many companies. This history reveals that, for good or ill, businesses 'infused with religion' and social beliefs have shaped the American marketplace profoundly.
This tradition can be traced back to entrepreneurs such as James, John, Wesley, and Fletcher Harper. Beginning in 1810, the brothers moved to New York City to work as apprentices in one of the many printing shops popping up in the city's downtown. They joined a growing downtown Methodist congregation, John Street Church, and within a few years, they had saved up enough to strike out on their own.
Read More:The Major U.S. Companies Scaling Back DEI Efforts as Trump Targets Initiatives
Initially, the brothers mostly published books for the Methodist community, but soon they were printing and publishing for the general public. Over the next five decades, they built a powerful publishing empire, despite several massive fires that nearly destroyed their operations.
By the 1860s, Harper & Brothers had grown into a powerful publishing company. Nonetheless, the brothers remained what we might call Christian 'virtue capitalists.' Such businesspeople aimed to produce goods that made consumers—and by extension, society—more righteous, while also operating their companies in a moral fashion. For the Harpers, this meant producing virtuous books while using Methodist values of thrift, honesty, and respect for the Sabbath to guide their publishing company.
The brothers' Methodist theology emphasized the agency of human beings to choose (or reject) salvation. After salvation, the Methodist emphasis on pursuing full sanctification, that is, the process of becoming more like Jesus Christ, informed the types of books the brothers produced and how they ran their company. For example, the company was known for its stated commitment to only publish works that fostered a moral and virtuous citizenry—as they defined it.
That meant refraining from publishing fiction, because the Harpers subscribed to a Protestantism concerned with the influence of cheap novels flooding the U.S. marketplace. At the time, many Americans were still skeptical of fiction as a genre because it was viewed as frivolous and not morally useful, with few exceptions. Their religious qualms meant that the Harpers instead advertised biography, travel, science, classical philosophy, and theology, all strategically marketed to appeal to the emerging middle-class consumer. For example, they offered titles in these genres as a part of their 'Family Library' and 'School Library' series, priced relatively affordably in simple, portable, and readable formats.
The darker, esoteric works of authors such as Edgar Allen Poe did not make the brothers' cut, and for those more 'edgy' authors who did, their manuscripts faced the scrutiny of Christian morality editors who moderated references to gambling, alcohol, and sabbath desecration.
For some Americans, the Protestant values the Harpers expressed in the marketplace were an asset, and many celebrated them. Yet they also had their critics, like Henry David Thoreau, who complained, 'Why should we leave it to Harper & Brothers…to select our reading?' His disdain for the brothers' moralistic literary choices was clear.
Harper & Brothers wasn't unusual in having a moral or religious orientation despite being an ostensibly secular business. This was especially true of the printing industry, where Protestant publishers were common, including Gould & Lincoln (Baptist), Crocker & Brewster (Congregationalist), J. B. Lippincott & Company (Episcopal), and Robert Carter & Brothers (Presbyterian). Nor was such virtue capitalism limited to 19th-century publishers. Other examples included Quaker Oats, the Mercantile Agency, and the soap enterprise Procter & Gamble.
Read More: These U.S. Companies Are Not Ditching DEI Amid Trump's Crackdown
Christian firms continued to proliferate throughout the 20th century. John Wanamaker built his 'temple' of a department store, complete with a magnificent pipe organ, in downtown Philadelphia. R. G. LeTourneau's company, which built giant earth-moving equipment, helped win World War II, even as his factories blurred the line between work and church. Walt Maloon's Correct Craft made high-quality water ski boats popular among the middle class in the 1970s and 1980s, all while gifting his boats to Christian summer camps. These businesses were proudly 'Christian,' reflecting the ethos and values of their founders.
These enterprises reflected an era where Christians, both liberal and fundamentalist, dominated the nation's economic and cultural spheres.
It's no secret that America is much more pluralistic today. Consequently, it's not surprising that in the latter decades of the 20th century, firms emerged expressing spiritual values in the marketplace that were not necessarily Christian.
Today, many 'virtue capital' firms are driven by principles other than religion. In 21st-century America, these have included organizations like Beyond Meat and Patagonia.
But historically, we can trace such examples of values-infused enterprise back to firms such as Harper & Brothers. The four Harper brothers never set out to create a new category of business. It was only natural to them that their publishing enterprise would reflect their Methodism, just as Ethan Brown has told the press he can't imagine not integrating his moral priorities into Beyond Meat. Closing their operations on Sundays, editing 'problematic' passages of text to be more 'Christian,' and committing to only publishing books that would foster 'virtue' in America's families and contribute to the common good—these were natural extensions of the brothers' religion.
As their business grew, so did the brothers' influence as they decided whose work would be published, and what types of literature to privilege. The New Yorker explained this profound influence in 1838, stating, 'The Harpers have probably done more for the advancement of literary taste and the advantage of native authorship than all the other publishers.' It was a heady rise for four journeyman apprentices, proud that their virtuous vision had penetrated American culture so profoundly.
The Harpers' story illustrates how those attacking forms of values-based capitalism in the 21st century—whether from the left or the right—are pushing against a longstanding reality of the American marketplace. As the Harper & Brothers example illustrates, companies whose morals guide their business practices have always had critics. Yet, for many consumers, virtue capitalism can offer compelling reasons to patronize a business. The long, successful history of these companies suggests that they're not going anywhere, regardless of how the political winds of the moment may blow.
Joseph P. Slaughter is an assistant professor of history at Wesleyan University and the author of Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in the Early American Republic (Columbia University Press).
Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.