A pioneering study of the social aspects of industrialisation in a developing country in tropical Africa. Though industrial workers form a relatively small proportion of the Ghanaian population, they represent the 'modern' sector of the economy and industrial jobs are much sought after by school leavers. The occupational and migration histories, the work and home lives of these men and women are examined in the framework of current theories of modernity to demonstrate the effects of industrialisation in those countries where the process has not yet gone very far. This book surveys the field of industrialisation in Ghana and its effects through such other factors as migration. It provides a valuable comparison both with industrialisation elsewhere and with other aspects of African social life.

This comprehensive study of farming methods and agrarian organization in Russia before the time of Peter the Great shifts the emphasis from the great estates to the basic production unit, the peasant family farms, and uses archaeological and enthnographic materials to supplement the documentary evidence. The methods of production and the farm implements used are described in detail and Professor Smith argues that features inherent in peasant farming account for Russian backwardness during this period. Part I classifies and describes the range of agrarian activities carried on in Muscovy - arable farming, hayfields, livestock, and gathering from the forest - and presents a model of a hypothetical farm unit; Part II examines three regions -Moscow, Toropets and Kazan - which stretch across central European Russia; and Part III provides a chapter on the relationship between peasant farming and the state.

Economic historians have long appreciated the important role of the Lowther family in the developing Whitehaven from a tiny fishing village into a flourishing industrial centre. In Coal and Tobacco, Dr Beckett has attempted, by analysing the west Cumberland economy, and the Lowther's entrepreneurial role, to reveal the vital importance of the coal industry. Since much of the coal was sold in Ireland, west Cumberland moved into a relationship with Dublin which was similar to, albeit on a smaller scale than, the more famous link between Tyneside and London. The coal trade provided the vital economic underpinning, but geographical considerations help to explain Whitehaven's other trading interests. Dr Beckett's major study is based on the Lowther papers, and reveals the crucial family involvement in these events. This book documents Lowther's story: how close he came to success, why he failed, and the impact of his ambitions on west Cumberland.

This book provides a detailed study of how manufacturing and processing industries have developed in the largest country of West Africa. Three chapters devoted to import substitution examine the interaction of growing consumer demand and the market strategy objectives of foreign merchant firms which produced the sudden spurt of industrialization in the late 1950s. It is shown that conventional government promotion policies played an insignificant role in triggering industrial development. Subsequent chapters present analyses of Nigeria's processing industries, applied industrial research, labour supply and productivity, technical education, industrial relations and indigenous entrepreneurial performance. The study goes beyond questions of efficiency in allocating resources, to underlying organizational and institutional factors. Professor Kilby concludes by isolating key problems in the industrialization process and by suggesting an optimum development strategy.

The incidence of industrial conflict and the nature of workplace industrial relations have occupied a central place in public and academic commentary on British society. Debate about the role of the trade unions in the state, the degree of authority that the unions can and should exercise over their members, the desirability of a legal framework for collective agreements, the nature of rank and file militancy and the means and techniques of re-establishing employers' authority over the work in the face of an expanded workers' frontier of control all lie at the heart of the social crisis that marked British society from the end of the 1960s.

This is a study of industrial unrest in the cotton industry at a time when the economy was on the threshold of mid-Victorian prosperity, and when Chartism was still much more than a memory. The town of Preston was the crucial battlefield, and here the masters and men fought out a bitter trial of strength. The strike of 1853-54 closed the Preston cotton industry for seven months, and disrupted production in many other towns in Lancashire. Against the implacable opposition of the masters, the strikers toured the country to organize support, and raised GBP100,000 in subscriptions from their fellow operatives. The dispute featured prominently in the national and provincial press, and the weavers' delegates, notably George Cowell and Mortimer Grimshaw, became celebrities overnight. After five months, the employers brought in blackleg labour, and when the detested `knobsticks' failed to break the strike they had the operatives' leaders arrested. These moves did not deter the cotton workers, who were forced back to work only when their financial reserves were exhausted. Their campaign ended defiantly, as it had begun, with cries of `Ten Per Cent still, and no surrender'. This book is their story.

In the late nineteenth century, Mexican citizens quickly adopted new technologies imported from abroad to sew cloth, manufacture glass bottles, refine minerals, and provide many goods and services. Rapid technological change supported economic growth and also brought cultural change and social dislocation. Drawing on three detailed case studies the sewing machine, a glass bottle blowing factory, and the cyanide process for gold and silver refining, Edward Beatty explores a central paradox of economic growth in nineteenth-century Mexico. While Mexicans made significant efforts to integrate new machines and products, difficulties in assimilating the skills required to use emerging technologies resulted in a persistent dependence on international expertise.

'No other group of workers in the history of the English working-class has received more sympathy and less scholarly attention than the handloom weavers of the Lancashire cotton industry during the Industrial Revolution.' Mr Bythell's is a detailed study of this important group. His aim is to examine the transition from the domestic system to the factory system in cotton weaving in the first half of the nineteenth century. He provides detailed information on the geographical distribution of handloom weaving, the size and structure of the labour force, the varying history of employment, wages and standard of life, the efforts made by the weavers to alleviate their distress through industrial and political action, and their final displacement and disappearance. The results of his research enable Mr Bythell to challenge several of the generally accepted views about the weavers.

This is an interdisciplinary study of Christopher Plantin's pioneering role in the production and distribution of books with engraved and etched illustrations in sixteenth-century Europe. Using the rich archival sources at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Belgium, Karen Bowen and Dirk Imhof examine the artists that worked on these illustrations, the types of illustrations that appealed to specific markets, and the technological, cultural and economic constraints under which Christopher Plantin operated as he ventured into this new area of publishing. They demonstrate how Plantin's innovations led to a revolutionary change in taste for book illustrations and place his work within the broader context of the European book trade of the late sixteenth-century and Antwerp's political, economic, cultural and religious history. This is a major contribution to the history of the book, art history and the economic and social history of early modern Europe.

A major study of the role of women in the labour market of Industrial Revolution Britain. It is well known that men and women usually worked in different occupations, and that women earned lower wages than men. These differences are usually attributed to custom but Joyce Burnette here demonstrates instead that gender differences in occupations and wages were instead largely driven by market forces. Her findings reveal that rather than harming women competition actually helped them by eroding the power that male workers needed to restrict female employment and minimising the gender wage gap by sorting women into the least strength-intensive occupations. Where the strength requirements of an occupation made women less productive than men, occupational segregation maximised both economic efficiency and female incomes. She shows that women's wages were then market wages rather than customary and the gender wage gap resulted from actual differences in productivity.

In 1925, the three leading chemical firms in Germany - BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst - merged, together with some smaller firms, to become IG Farben. IG Farben became, like no other firm, synonymous with the participation of German industry in the most heinous crimes of the Nazi regime. This book deals in depth with one of IG Farben's leading factories, Hoechst, during the Third Reich. On the basis of long and meticulous archival research, including previously inaccessible company records, the author tries to describe and analyze the relationship between management and employees and the Nazi party and its organizations. The author shows the exclusion and persecution of employees, particularly Jewish employees. He traces the extent of Hoechst's involvement in the exploitation of forced labor, and its active participation in human experiments in several concentration camps. Throughout, he tries to shed light on the motivations of those responsible for this conduct.

It was not until the eighteenth century that books became widely available throughout the whole of England. Publishing remained largely London-based, but the provincial market grew steadily in importance. In this study, drawing on a wide range of primary sources, John Feather traces the economic, social and cultural forces which made possible this fundamental change, and assesses the impact of the metropolitan printed word on provincial society. He discusses the important issues of copyright and piracy; the various financial arrangements between booksellers and publishers; and above all the elaborate distribution and agency systems that enabled London publishers to retain their effective stranglehold by penetrating the provincial market at every level.

This book examines international trade cooperation in 1815-1914. Basing the theoretical analysis on the domestic political economy of states, Pahre develops theories of international cooperation, the spread of trade cooperation, and the effect of trade regimes. The book examines trade politics in the entire century from 1815 to 1914 around the world, using a database of trade agreements. It will appeal to students of international relations, comparative political economy, economic history, trade law, and international organizations.

For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses in search of cheap labor and almost no oversight. Imperial Food Products was one of those businesses. The company set up shop in Hamlet in the 1980s. Workers who complained about low pay and hazardous working conditions at the plant were silenced or fired. But jobs were scarce in town, so workers kept coming back, and the company continued to operate with impunity. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the never-inspected chicken-processing plant a stone's throw from Hamlet's city hall burst into flames. Twenty-five people perished that day behind the plant's locked and bolted doors. It remains one of the deadliest accidents ever in the history of the modern American food industry. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past in the United States. However, as award-winning historian Bryant Simon shows, the pursuit of cheap food merged with economic decline in small towns across the South and the nation to devalue laborers and create perilous working conditions. The Hamlet fire and its aftermath reveal the social costs of antiunionism, lax regulations, and ongoing racial discrimination. Using oral histories, contemporary news coverage, and state records, Simon has constructed a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that exposes how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was destined to result in tragedy.

Australians have become increasingly visible outside of the country as speakers and actors in radio and television, their media moguls have frequently bought up foreign companies, and people around the world have been able to enjoy such Australian productions as The Flying Doctors, Neighbours, and Kath and Kim. The origins, early development and later adaptations of radio and television show how Australia has gone from being a minor and rather parochial player to being a significant part of the international scene. The Historical Dictionary of Australian Radio and Television provides essential facts and information concerning the Australian radio and television industry. This is accomplished through the use of a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on directors, producers, writers, actors, television and radio series, and television and radio stations.

This book, first published in 2007, offers a bold new interpretation of American business history during the formative years 1870-1920, which mark the dawn of modern big business. It focuses on four major revolutions that ushered in this new era: those in power, transportation, communication, and organization. Using the metaphor of America as an economic hothouse uniquely suited to rapid economic growth during these years, it analyzes the interplay of key factors such as entrepreneurial talent, technology, land, natural resources, law, mass markets, and the rise of cities. It also delineates the process that laid the foundation for the modern era, in which virtually every human activity became a business, and, in most cases, a big business. The book also profiles numerous major entrepreneurs whose careers and activities illustrate broader trends and themes. It utilizes a wide variety of sources, including novels from the period, to produce a lively narrative.

This book, first published in 2007, offers a bold new interpretation of American business history during the formative years 1870-1920, which mark the dawn of modern big business. It focuses on four major revolutions that ushered in this new era: those in power, transportation, communication, and organization. Using the metaphor of America as an economic hothouse uniquely suited to rapid economic growth during these years, it analyzes the interplay of key factors such as entrepreneurial talent, technology, land, natural resources, law, mass markets, and the rise of cities. It also delineates the process that laid the foundation for the modern era, in which virtually every human activity became a business, and, in most cases, a big business. The book also profiles numerous major entrepreneurs whose careers and activities illustrate broader trends and themes. It utilizes a wide variety of sources, including novels from the period, to produce a lively narrative.

The majority of workers in South Asia are employed in industries that rely on manual labour and craft skills. Some of these industries have existed for centuries and survived great changes in consumption and technology over the last 150 years. In earlier studies, historians of the region focused on mechanized rather than craft industries, arguing that traditional manufacturing was destroyed or devitalized during the colonial period, and that 'modern' industry is substantially different. Exploring material from research into five traditional industries, Tirthankar Roy's book contests these notions, demonstrating that while traditional industry did evolve during the Industrial Revolution, these transformations had a positive rather than destructive effect on manufacturing generally. In fact, the book suggests, the major industries in post-independence India were shaped by such transformations. Tirthankar Roy's book offers penetrating insights into India's economic and social history.

In this study of Akron's Cascade Locks, canal historian Jack Gieck examines the story of this remarkable lock system, including a look at early-nineteenth-century entrepreneurs who exploited the precipitous terrain to found one of the first industrial centers in the American Midwest. A steep staircase of sixteen locks was required to raise canal boats 149 feet in a single mile in order to reach the Akron Summit - the highest point on the 309-mile-long Ohio & Erie Canal. But what was considered by some to be an impossible feat of engineering represented a commercial opportunity for others, beginning with Dr. Eliakim Crosby, who built a two-mile millrace from a dam on the Little Cuyahoga River at Middlebury to his Stone Mill at Lock 5 on the canal. After turning Crosby's millstones, the water became the Cascade Race, flowing down the steep slope parallel to the canal, giving rise to more than a dozen industries, including several iron furnaces, a foundry, a woolen mill, a furniture factory, a distillery, several grist mills, and two rubber plants - all of them turned by waterpower. And they shipped their products to markets from New York to New Orleans via the canal running by their back doors. Early Akron's ""Industrial Valley"" is illustrated with photographs from the author's collection and the archives of the Canal Society of Ohio, the Ohio Historical Society, the University of Akron, and the Cascade Locks Park Association. It contains a guide for Canalway hikers and bikers on the towpath through Akron's Cascade Locks Park with original maps by Chuck Ayers. This book will be welcomed by historians and engineers as well as by the many who find the surviving canals to be fascinating symbols of Ohio's heritage.

This book investigates the causes, course and consequences of the shift in West German chemical technology from a coal to a petroleum basis between 1945 and 1961. It examines the historical underpinnings of the technological culture of the German chemical industry; changing political and economic constraints on technological decision-making in the post-war period; and the actual decision-making process within five individual firms. By addressing a wide variety of broader issues - including the origins and impact of the division of Germany; the effects of the Wirtschaftswunder, or economic miracle; European integration; and the changing role of the West German Federal Republic in the international political order - this book explains how West German industry regained and then retained a competitive position in world markets.

Machine tools are vital to our industrial, metal-using society. This book is the first history of the British machine-tool industry during an important period of its development, a time when it played a crucial part in the transformation of the British economy. The author discusses the structure of the industry, its performance in international trade, and, through an analysis of the voluminous records of one firm, its efficiency and productivity. This discussion is placed within the wider context of current controversies about the behaviour of the British economy during the 'Great Depression' of the later nineteenth century, and its conclusions do not support pessimistic views of the performance of British industry. The book is also intended as a contribution to the explanation of the process of technological change, a problem of increasing interest to economists and economic historians.

This book explores the long-term forces shaping business attitudes in the British and American cotton industries from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Mary Rose traces social, political and developmental differences from the early stages of industrialization. She demonstrates how firms become embedded in networks, and evolve according to business values and strategies. The book examines local and regional networks, the changing competitive environment, community characteristics and national differences. Rose's findings challenge traditional views with new evidence that the character and achievements of each industry uniquely reflect local circumstances and historical experience. This is a critical synthesis of the multidisciplinary literature on the cotton textile industries of two major industrial nations and a study of the changing forces influencing decision making. An important contribution to comparative business history, this book will be of interest to graduates and scholars in all areas of business and economic history.

Carroll Pursell tells the story of the evolution of American technology since World War II. His fascinating and surprising history links pop culture icons with landmarks in technological innovation and shows how postwar politics left their mark on everything from television, automobiles, and genetically engineered crops to contraceptives, Tupperware, and the Veg-O-Matic.

Just as America's domestic and international policies became inextricably linked during the Cold War, so did the nation's public and private technologies. The spread of the suburbs fed into demands for an interstate highway system, which itself became implicated in urban renewal projects. Fear of slipping into a postwar economic depression was offset by the creation of "a consumers' republic" in which buying and using consumer goods became the ultimate act of citizenship and a symbol of an "American Way of Life."

Pursell begins with the events of World War II and the increasing belief that technological progress and the science that supported it held the key to a stronger, richer, and happier America. He looks at the effect of returning American servicemen and servicewomen and the Marshall Plan, which sought to integrate Western Europe into America's economic, business, and technological structure. He considers the accumulating "problems" associated with American technological supremacy, which, by the end of the 1960s, led to a crisis of confidence.

Pursell concludes with an analysis of how consumer technologies create a cultural understanding that makes political technologies acceptable and even seem inevitable, while those same political technologies provide both form and content for the technologies found at home and at work. By understanding this history, Pursell hopes to advance a better understanding of the postwar American self.

The story of Oxford University Press spans five centuries of printing and publishing. Beginning with the first presses set up in Oxford in the fifteenth century and the later establishment of a university printing house, it leads through the publication of bibles, scholarly works, and the Oxford English Dictionary, to a twentieth-century expansion that created the largest university press in the world, playing a part in research, education, and language learning in more than 50 countries. With access to extensive archives, The History of OUP traces the impact of long-term changes in printing technology and the business of publishing. It also considers the effects of wider trends in education, reading, and scholarship, in international trade and the spreading influence of the English language, and in cultural and social history - both in Oxford and through its presence around the world.