In this book, Sean Safford compares the recent history of Allentown, Pennsylvania, with that of Youngstown, Ohio. Allentown has seen a noticeable rebound over the course of the past twenty years. Facing a collapse of its steel-making firms, its economy has reinvented itself by transforming existing companies, building an entrepreneurial sector, and attracting inward investment. Youngstown was similar to Allentown in its industrial history, the composition of its labor force, and other important variables, and yet instead of adapting in the face of acute economic crisis, it fell into a mean race to the bottom.

Challenging various theoretical perspectives on regional socioeconomic change, "Why the Garden Club Couldn't Save Youngstown" argues that the structure of social networks among the cities' economic, political, and civic leaders account for the divergent trajectories of post-industrial regions. It offers a probing historical explanation for the decline, fall, and unlikely rejuvenation of the Rust Belt. Emphasizing the power of social networks to shape action, determine access to and control over information and resources, define the contexts in which problems are viewed, and enable collective action in the face of externally generated crises, this book points toward present-day policy prescriptions for the ongoing plight of mature industrial regions in the U.S. and abroad.

The remnants of slate mining and quarrying form as much a part of the Lakeland historic landscape as the stone walls, heathered moorlands and Lakeland farms do. A significant number of local families currently living in Lake District villages has had some connections with the slate industry in the past, and a few are still involved in the industry today. Although many believe that slate was worked during the Roman era, the present 'style' of slate-working started shortly after the Norman Conquest to help build the Norman castles, abbeys and priories in Britain. The Normans were familiar with slate; it had been worked for centuries earlier at sites in the Ardennes and in the Loire valley. By 1280 there are references to slate being worked at Longsleddale and by the fifteenth century the industry was well established throughout the district. Using historic detail, photographs and captions, Slate Mining in the Lake District: An Illustrated History explores the history of the industry in the Lake District. Considering slate mining's key role in the heritage of this iconic national park, Alastair Cameron also details its present-day operations.

New Lanark, the former cotton spinning village, is internationally renowned for pioneering technology and social change in the Industrial Revolution. This book traces the community's history from its conception as a centre of mass production in 1785 to its present day standing as a World Heritage Site. Beginning with New Lanark's early development under its creator, the banker and textile entrepreneur David Dale (1739-1806), it looks at the social conditions of the mainly migrant workforce recruited to the village, and especially at the use of child labour from the cities. Detailing Robert Owen's social and educational experiments at New Lanark (1813-1825), it describes how the community became a showpiece around the world for its 'New System' of society. After Owen's departure for New Harmony in Indiana, the book charts the relative decline of the mills under a succession of owners - the Walkers, the Birkmyres, and the Gourock Ropework Company. The book concludes with the story of closure and long term restoration as a living village, major tourist attraction and inscription as a World Heritage Site. It is a fascinating read for anyone interested in heritage, conservation, social and community history.

Tracking the movement of finance capital toward far-flung investment frontiers, Noam Maggor reconceives the emergence of modern capitalism in the United States. Brahmin Capitalism reveals the decisive role of established wealth in the transformation of the American economy in the decades after the Civil War, leading the way to the nationally integrated corporate capitalism of the twentieth century. Maggor's provocative history of the Gilded Age explores how the moneyed elite in Boston-the quintessential East Coast establishment-leveraged their wealth to forge transcontinental networks of commodities, labor, and transportation. With the decline of cotton-based textile manufacturing in New England and the abolition of slavery, these gentleman bankers traveled far and wide in search of new business opportunities and found them in the mines, railroads, and industries of the Great West. Their investments spawned new political and social conflict, in both the urbanizing East and the expanding West. In contests that had lasting implications for wealth, government, and inequality, financial power collided with more democratic visions of economic progress. Rather than being driven inexorably by technologies like the railroad and telegraph, the new capitalist geography was a grand and highly contentious undertaking, Maggor shows, one that proved pivotal for the rise of the United States as the world's leading industrial nation.

The dean of business historians continues his masterful chronicle of the transforming revolutions of the twentieth century begun in "Inventing the Electronic Century."

Alfred Chandler argues that only with consistent attention to research and development and an emphasis on long-term corporate strategies could firms remain successful over time. He details these processes for nearly every major chemical and pharmaceutical firm, demonstrating why some companies forged ahead while others failed.

By the end of World War II, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries were transformed by the commercializing of new learning, the petrochemical and the antibiotic revolutions. But by the 1970s, chemical science was no longer providing the new learning necessary to commercialize more products, although new directions flourished in the pharmaceutical industries. In the 1980s, major drug companies, including Eli Lilly, Merck, and Schering Plough, commercialized the first biotechnology products, and as the twenty-first century began, the infrastructure of this biotechnology revolution was comparable to that of the second industrial revolution just before World War I and the information revolution of the 1960s. "Shaping the Industrial Century" is a major contribution to our understanding of the most dynamic industries of the modern era.

West German Industrialists and the Making of the Economic Miracle investigates the mentality of post-war German (heavy) industrialists through an analysis of their attitudes, thinking and views on social, political and, of course, economic matters at the time, including the 'social market economy' and how they saw their own role in society, with this investigation taking place against the backdrop of the 'economic miracle' and the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s. The book also includes an assessment of whether the self-declared, new 'aristocracy of merit' justified its place in society and carried out its actions in a new spirit of political responsibility. This is an important text for all students interested in the history of Germany and the modern economic history of Europe.

Originally published in 1969. In describing the emergence of oligopoly, Professor Eichner has written a history of the American sugar refining industry, one based in part on records of the United States Department of Justice. Sugar refining was one of the first major industries to be consolidated, and its expertise was in many ways typical of the development of other industries. Eichner's focus is on the changing pattern of industrial organization. This study is based on a unique four-stage model of the process by which the industrial structure of the American economy has evolved. The first part of the book traces the early history of the sugar refining industry and argues that the classical model of a competitive industry is inherently unstable once large fixed investments are required. The more closely sugar refining approximated this model, the more unstable the model became in practice. This instability led, in 1887, to the formation of the sugar trust. The author contends that the trust was formed not to exploit economies of scale but with the intent of achieving control over prices. In the second part of the book, Eichner describes the political and legal reaction that transformed monopoly into oligopoly. This sequence of events is best understood in terms of a learning curve in which the response of businessmen over time was related to the changing institutional environment in which they were forced to operate.

Lockheed has been one of American's largest corporations and most important defense contractors from World War II to the present day (since 1995 as part of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company). During the postwar era, its executives enacted complicated business responses to black demands for equality. Based on the papers of a personnel executive, the memoir of an African American employee, interviews, and company publications, this narrative history offers a unique inside perspective on the evolution of equal employment and affirmative action policies at Lockheed Aircraft's massive Georgia plant from the early 1950s through the early 1980s.Randall L. Patton provides a rare, perhaps unique, account of African American struggle and management response, set within the context of the regional and national struggles for civil rights. The book describes the complex interplay of black protest, federal policy, and management action in a crucial space in the national economy and within the South, contributing to business history, policy history, labor history, and civil rights history.

Monotown: Urban Dreams Brutal Imperatives examines the post-industrial transformation and transnational legacy of single industry towns, which emerged as a distinctive socio-political project of urbanisation in the Soviet Union during the 1920s. Monotowns took form through the establishment of industrial enterprises strewn across remote parts of the Siberian hinterland, around which cities had to be built to provide labour. This model entailed the relocation of vast populations which would require services, housing, and social and physical infrastructure, all linked to a given industrial enterprise. By examining the ways in which monotowns have adapted over time in this expanded field, this book establishes a broader yet more specific dialogue about the challenges faced by towns within this particular single-industry etymology.

They Taught Us Skills for Life: We are the Engineers! Scotland's labour history has been the subject of many important studies, surveys, articles and books. Some of those published represent the invaluable collection of local groups and amateur historians, while others have been, and are, produced by academics and labour officials. The general expectation, even in Scotland, is that these works should be written in Standard English, regardless of the everyday speech of the workforce. For this publication, however, it seemed more important to transcribe, as recorded, the voices of folk whose vitality of language and expression gives a brighter reflection of their experiences during work and leisure.This book has grown out of an oral history project, 'The End of the Shift', which aims to record the working practices and conditions of skilled workers in Scotland's past industries. Publicity about the project caught the interest of a group of retired engineers, who had all served apprenticeships with a prestigious Kirkcaldy firm, Melville-Brodie Engineering Company.Having lived through times when Scotland seemed blighted by industrial closures, the engineers could identify with 'the end of the shift' as they had experienced the effect of closing down Melville-Brodie Engineering Company. The entire workforce was dispersed, and with it, the skills, expertise and wisdom of generations. Kirkcaldy also lost a company that had been the pride of Scottish engineering.Over the years, as the retired engineers reflected on the radical changes that have taken place since their 'second to none' training, they began to realise the importance of recording knowledge and skills for posterity. They also wanted to remember the firm that trained them, and so they planned a memorial to be erected on the site of Melville-Brodie Engineering works. It was to be designed and made by the men themselves, and in May 2014,the group had the satisfaction of seeing the plaque unveiled by Mrs June Shanks, daughter of the celebrated engineer, Robert Burt Brodie. Standing beside her were the two oldest Melville- Brodie 'boys' (aged 94 and 89), Bob Thomson and Willie Black, and the Secretary of the Melville-Brodie Retired Engineers' Club, Dougie Reid.Councillor for Kirkcaldy East, Kay Carrington, who supported the project, represented Fife Council as she addressed the audience and the media:This is a really exciting project because it shows our past history, how we made a difference, not just in Kirkcaldy, but in the wider world. Melville-Brodie engineers did everything that we're proud of in Scotland. We need to keep the story alive to enable us to take that forward to children and grandchildren in the future.

This book, originally published in 1901, provides an introduction to the industrial and social history of England from prehistoric times to the early nineteenth century. Topics discussed include: the organization or rural life and town life; medieval trade and commerce; the Black Death and the Peasants Rebellion; the end of the medieval system; the expansion of England; the Industrial Revolution; the extension of government control; and the extension of voluntary associations, trade unions, and trusts.

This is a brief story of the long agitation for textile unions in the South. To evaluate the contributions of textile unions and to determine whether they are socially desirable, it is necessary to know the history of the union movement and the effect unions have had in educating workers. Mitchell gives a clear, succinct account of the movement in the South. Originally published in 1931. A UNC Press Enduring Edition - UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

If you don’t know the Tobacco Wars, you don’t know American history.

Imagine a lawless militia of 10,000 masked men roaming the cities and countrysides of the United States. Brandishing firearms, these “Night Riders” set fire to warehouses and barns, destroy millions of dollars of product, and tear businessmen from their homes to torture them—their revenge against an apathetic One Percent who profit off the misery of the working class. This is not a scene from an apocalyptic movie. It’s a fact of American history.

The most violent and prolonged conflict between the Civil War and the Civil Rights struggles, the Tobacco Wars changed the course of American history—and America’s economy. So why haven’t you ever heard of it? In Tobacco, Trusts And Trump: How America’s Forgotten War Created Big Government, entrepreneur Jim Rumford draws from one of the largest private collections of Tobacco Wars primary documents, as well as his own family ties to the conflict, to show how the United States today is spiraling toward the same chaos that sparked the bloody war between the working class of America’s heartland and the Great Tobacco Trust—and why the Establishment doesn’t want you to know about it. Citing nearly three hundred sources, Rumford weaves a compelling narrative to show how the subjects of recent headlines—the TEA Party, Silicon Valley oligopolies, Occupy Wall Street protests, the Socialist rhetoric of Senator Bernie Sanders, outsourcing of blue collar careers, and the election of President Donald J. Trump—echo those of a century ago.

From Big Business monopolies that triggered financial recessions to the Populist and Progressive movements that enabled Big Government to strip Americans of numerous freedoms, the consequences of the Tobacco Wars could not be more relevant today.