Sugar cane has long been one of the world's most important cash crops, and the sugar cane industry can be regarded as one of the world's oldest industries. The industry involves three basic processes: the cultivation of cane, the milling of the cane to extract the juice and the rendering of the juice into crystal sugar. This book is a geography of the sugar cane industry from its origins to 1914. It describes the spread of the industry from India into the Mediterranean during medieval times, across to the Americas in the early years of European colonization, and its subsequent diffusion to most parts of the tropics. It examines changes in agricultural techniques over the centuries, the significance of improvements in milling and manufacturing techniques, and the role of the industry through its demand for labor in forming the multicultural societies of the tropical world. It is the first authoritative study of the development of the industry, in English, in forty years.

At the start of the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the Dodge Brothers supplied nearly every car part needed by the up-and-coming auto giant. After fifteen years of operating a successful automotive supplier company, much to Ford's advantage, John and Horace Dodge again changed the face of the automotive market in 1914 by introducing their own car. The Dodge Brothers automobile carried on their names even after their untimely deaths in 1920, with the company then remaining in the hands of their widows until its sale in 1925 to New York bankers and subsequent purchase in 1928 by Walter Chrysler. The Dodge nameplate has endured, but despite their achievements and their critical role in the early success of Henry Ford, John and Horace Dodge are usually overlooked in histories of the early automotive industry. Charles K. Hyde's book The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy is the first scholarly study of the Dodge brothers and their company, chronicling their lives - from their childhood in Niles, Michigan, to their long years of learning the machinist's trade in Battle Creek, Port Huron, Detroit, and Windsor, Ontario - and examining their influence on automotive manufacturing and marketing trends in the early part of the twentieth century. Hyde details the brothers' civic contributions to Detroit, their hiring of minorities and women, and their often anonymous charitable contributions to local organizations. Hyde puts the Dodge brothers' lives and accomplishments in perspective by indicating their long-term influence, which has continued long after their deaths. The most complete and accurate resource on John and Horace Dodge available, The Dodge Brothers uses sources that have never before been examined. Its scholarly approach and personal tone make this book appealing for automotive historians as well as car enthusiasts and those interested in Detroit's early development.

From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, farmers in the Corn Belt transformed their region into a new, industrial powerhouse of large-scale production, mechanization, specialization, and efficiency. Many farm experts and implement manufacturers had urged farmers in this direction for decades, but it was the persistent labor shortage and cost-price squeeze following WWII that prompted farmers to pave the way to industrializing agriculture. Anderson examines the changes in Iowa, a representative state of the Corn Belt, in order to explore why farmers adopted particular technologies and how, over time, they integrated new tools and techniques. In addition to the impressive field machinery, grain storage facilities, and automated feeding systems were the less visible, but no less potent, chemical technologies-antibiotics and growth hormones administered to livestock, as well as insecticide, herbicide, and fertilizer applied to crops. Much of this new technology created unintended consequences: pesticides encouraged the proliferation of resistant strains of plants and insects while also polluting the environment and threatening wildlife, and the use of feed additives triggered concern about the health effects to consumers. In Industrializing the Corn Belt, J. L. Anderson explains that the cost of equipment and chemicals made unprecedented demands on farm capital, and in order to maximize production, farmers planted more acres with fewer but more profitable crops or specialized in raising large herds of a single livestock species. The industrialization of agriculture gave rural Americans a lifestyle resembling that of their urban and suburban counterparts. Yet the rural population continued to dwindle as farms required less human labor, and many small farmers, unable or unwilling to compete, chose to sell out. Based on farm records, cooperative extension reports, USDA publications, oral interviews, trade literature, and agricultural periodicals, Industrializing the Corn Belt offers a fresh look at an important period of revolutionary change in agriculture through the eyes of those who grew the crops, raised the livestock, implemented new technology, and ultimately made the decisions that transformed the nature of the family farm and the Midwestern landscape.

Why did the industrial revolution take place in eighteenth-century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? In this convincing new account Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows that in Britain wages were high and capital and energy cheap in comparison to other countries in Europe and Asia. As a result, the breakthrough technologies of the industrial revolution - the steam engine, the cotton mill, and the substitution of coal for wood in metal production - were uniquely profitable to invent and use in Britain. The high wage economy of pre-industrial Britain also fostered industrial development since more people could afford schooling and apprenticeships. It was only when British engineers made these new technologies more cost-effective during the nineteenth century that the industrial revolution would spread around the world.

For a long time, the idea of China as a culture and society which was voluntarily secluding itself from the rest of the world was dominant. But, in reality, China has always been part of the world, just as the world has always sought to penetrate China. The relationship between China and the world was, in the past, sometimes smooth, and at other times it was difficult, but nevertheless the bond remained alive.This collection presents an analysis of China from a global perspective within a broad temporal and spatial spectrum. It reveals the early relations established between the Roman Empire and China, the dynamics developed with the countries of the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and Japan, and the gradual path of Europeans and Americans towards China. The book reviews the development of diplomatic relations, the signing of agreements and alliances, and the rise and resolution of conflicts. It also analyses the forging of economic relations, the establishment of commercial exchanges and the creation of companies, professional bodies and institutions of collaboration.

This volume contains selected essays which together re-frame the roles of guilds in medieval and early modern European cities. They focus on the different ways in which we can understand the interfaces between regulatory frameworks, represented by guild and civic regulations, and the wider world of labour and production. Through case studies of single cities, economic sectors, and of territories, they address a range of questions about the operation of labour markets, the nature of guild regulation within and outside guild jurisdictions, and the interaction between `regulation' and `freedom' as expressed in legislation and in the organization of production and distribution. In doing so, they offer a means to compare and contrast experiences across Europe and the circumstances which determined and altered economic structures and, in turn, political and social structures in cities.

This book takes an unflinching look at one of the most contentious labour conflicts in North American history, and a brave indictment of the destructive collusion between business interests and Mexico's government.

De historische ruimtelijke planning rond de Leuvense Vaartkom vormt het uitgangspunt van deze studie met de nooit eerder gepubliceerde voorontwerpen, de oorspronkelijke loop van de Dijle en de ontwikkeling van de infrastructuur. De juiste situering van bewoners en bedrijven op basis van adressen, bevolkingsregisters en hernummeringslijsten was vaak niet mogelijk. Daarom werd gekozen voor een systematisch onderzoek van het kadasterarchief van alle percelen rond de Vaartkom en de Vaart tot Wijgmaal betreffende de 19de eeuw en de periode tot de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Dit geeft meteen een beter inzicht in de ontwikkeling van de bedrijven, we leren een aantal families of personen kennen die een belangrijke rol speelden bij de industrialisatie van de Leuvense Vaart en er komen verrassende verbanden op binnen- en buitenlands vlak tot uiting. Nuttige randinformatie werd ondergebracht in buitentekstkaders. Deel 2 bevat vele originele niet eerder gepubliceerde documenten en foto's. De Leuvense Vaart is in de eerste plaats een wegwijzer en een naslagwerk voor al wie de industriele geschiedenis van Leuven verder wil uitdiepen of interesse heeft voor industrieel erfgoed, architectuur, transporteconomie, historische geografie, ruimtelijke ordening, bedrijfsgeschiedenis en genealogie.

The strike of 1984/5 cut deep into the traditional mining communities yet in the midst of this wholesale destruction something unexpected happened. From the dark corners of obscurity came the voices of the wives, mothers and daughters of miners - previously unheard, inexperienced, unrehearsed. Out of desperation they found the strength and courage to not only stand and fight alongside their men but to become political activists in their own right. Overnight they mastered the media, learnt which journalists to trust and began to appear in the newspapers, and on radio and TV. But when the strike ended in defeat the media lost interest. The women were dumped, allowed to slip back into the shadows. For some the strike brought about a change; they had seen an existence beyond the slagheaps and embraced it. For others the end of the strike meant coming back to earth with a bump. Two decades later Triona Holden, who was one of the BBC correspondents reporting on the strike, takes the reader into the lives of these remarkable women and reveals that what is good and inextinguishable about the mining communities lives on in these women's articulate, funny and frank stories.

In 1998, there was the latest in a long and complex history of takeovers that had bedevilled Rolls-Royce and Bentley since the companies were founded. This resulted in Volkswagen taking ownership of the factory in Crewe, together with the Bentley range and name, while BMW moved Rolls-Royce production to a new site in Sussex. On 30 August 2002, the last Crewe-built Rolls-Royce rolled off the production line, bringing the era of Crewe-built Rolls-Royces to an end. Peter Ollerhead, an ex-Rolls-Royce employee, has spent years researching the history of the company in Crewe, from 1938 to 1998, focusing on the endeavours and the experiences of its employees: this is a book about people. The detailed text, illustrated with over 80 photographs, explains how the initial establishment of a Merlin aero engine factory was thwarted by the problems of building on a greenfield site, where the early days of skill shortages, a chronic need for housing and a strike were followed by a bombing raid in 1940, in which seventeen employees were killed. The arrival of car production just after the Second World War is fully covered, as are the other enterprises that helped to keep the company afloat, from War Department power units to hip joints for the NHS. Despite a troubled history - with two major fires, bankruptcy and large-scale redundancies - Rolls-Royce was Crewe's largest employer for many years, produced the world's best luxury cars, and influenced and shaped the town as no other company has done. This book is a fitting tribute to the generations of workers who made it all possible.

Just over 100 years ago, a small engineering concern in Vauxhall, South London, made its first motor car. Named after the place it was built, the Vauxhall was a revelation. Within a few years of expansion, production had moved to Luton. Vauxhall was purchased in the 1920s by General Motors and its most famous models include its Edwardian Prince Henry, the PA Cresta, perhaps the most distinctive of its American-styled cars, as well as the Astra, Cavalier and its 1970s rally winning cars such as the Firenza and Chevette. Since the 1950s, Vauxhall has remained one of Britain's most popular car makes, with many millions of its cars sold worldwide. Its F-type Victor was at one time the biggest export earner for Britain with over 200,000 sold abroad and the PA was the first true motorway cruiser built in Britain. Vauxhall: A History tells the story of the cars, the people that built them and also of Bedford, the truck and van division of Vauxhall.

Marchon was one of Whitehaven's largest employers, employing over 4500 people directly and indirectly at their Whitehaven plant. This book tells the story of one of the cottage industry rising to an international industrial giant and then back to nothing again, with the plant closing in the early 1980s.

From prehistoric times until late in the twentieth century iron was vital to the livelihood of those who lived and worked in the Forest of Dean. From Roman times onwards iron from the Forest was also vital to the national economy. This is the story of the Forest's iron industry.

The small firms that merged were stone quarries that had produced road setts, pre-mixed concrete, paint paper and even cosmetics. The constituent quarries had their own railway systems, often with inclines as they were located in mountainous regions. A large number of locomotives of several gauges feature prominently in the history of the quarry firms, from the first locos that used limestone and granite as track ballast, to the powerful Diesel locomotives. Ian Peaty had collected new material to form a complete company history of the Hanson Aggregates Group. The book is illustrated by numerous maps and diagrams, as well as modern and archive photographs and watercolour paintings. It will appeal to those in the aggregate industry, railway enthusiasts, industrial historians and modellers.

Lady Charlotte (1812-95) was one of the successful women of nineteenth century. She married Josiah John Guest and moved from Lincolnshire to industrial South Wales. Through this woman's life, this book explores the impact of industrialisation on British society, Wales' literary heritage and importance of gender in Victorian society.

Contesting claims that postwar American liberalism retreated from fights against unemployment and economic inequality, "The Problem of Jobs" reveals that such efforts did not collapse after the New Deal but instead began to flourish at the local, rather than the national, level.With a focus on Philadelphia, this volume illuminates the central role of these local political and policy struggles in shaping the fortunes of the city and its citizens alike. In the process, the book tells the remarkable story of how Philadelphia's policy makers and community activists energetically worked to challenge deindustrialization through an innovative series of job retention initiatives, training programs, inner-city business development projects, and early affirmative action programs. Without ignoring the failure of Philadelphians to combat institutionalized racism, Guian A. McKee's account of their surprising success draws a portrait of American liberalism that evinces a potency not usually associated with the postwar era. Ultimately interpreting economic decline as an arena for intervention rather than a historical inevitability, "The Problem of Jobs" serves as a timely reminder of the potential of policy to combat injustice.

The Flats, a district near downtown Cleveland, was once was the vibrant heart of Midwestern industry and is now in the throes of change: Some of its warehouses and factories have been transformed into nightclubs and restaurants, while homes in adjacent neighborhoods have been replaced by mini-mansions. In "Cleveland," photographer Andrew Borowiec documents the Flats today and evokes the way of life they once embodied.
Given the rare opportunity to access one of Cleveland's vast steel mills before it was modernized or destroyed, Borowiec employed his camera to explore the Flats and its monuments of American industry. His striking black and white images reveal the broken power and vulnerability of the once-mighty mill as well as its relation to the surrounding city and its neighborhoods. The commercial buildings, factories, warehouses, and iron bridges that sustained Cleveland's industrial pulse convey a quiet dignity in these compelling photographs, as do the modest frame houses that sheltered those who labored for decades in the Flats.
As Clevelanders struggle to redefine themselves as citizens of a twenty-first-century corporate metropolis, the Flats stand as a haunting testament to a time when men worked with their hands and steel was indeed the backbone of our nation. Borowiec's compassionate but unflinchingly honest gaze challenges us to look both at and beyond the images of Cleveland and to meditate on our common history of loss and rebirth.