The past shapes the present and plays into the future. Business History provides an overview of the development of the national and international economy, besides providing key insights into industrial structure and the evolution of business strategies. This collection presents some of the most important journal articles, written in English, on the business history of modern capitalism. The majority relate to the 20th century and all illuminate various aspects of the modern business system and the corporations (and small businesses) that have been its pillars. The articles have been arranged in five broad sections spanning the business environment, organizational development, globalization, entrepreneurship and management, and ethics and the environment. Within these prime divisions there are subordinate but discrete topics, such as the state and business; business and technical change; business strategy; corporate merger-making; multinational enterprise; small-and-medium enterprise; entrepreneurship; management; marketing; labour management; business culture; boardroom governance; business ethics; and corporate crime.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT The ′Industrial Military Complex′ in Historical Perspective - P A C Koistinen World War I A Model for Technological Change Applied to the Turbojet Revolution - Edward W Constant II Research, Patents, and the Struggle to Control Radio - Leonard S Reich A Study of Big Business and the Uses of Industrial Research From Competitor to Consumer - Tedlow, Richard S, The Changing Focus of Federal Regulation of Advertising, 1914-1938 Eckert-Mauchly Computers - N B Stern Conceptual Triumphs, Commercial Tribulations The Political Economy of Demoralization - Barry Supple The State and the Coalmining Industry in Britain and America between the Wars The Role of Energy Supplies During Western Europe′s Golden Age, 1950-1972 - J A Hassan and A Duncan Business Led′ Organisation: British Rail, 1977-1979 - Terence R Gourvish Government Industry Relations in Britain′s Public Sector What have the Lawyers Done for American Business? - Kenneth Lipartito The Case of Baker and Botts of Houston Ford Automates - David Hounshell Technology and Organization in Theory and Practice Americanization and its Limits - Jonathan Zeitlin Theory and Practice in the Reconstruction of Britain′s Engineering Industries, 1945-55 Pharmaceutical Firms and the Transition to Biotechnology - Louis Galambos and Jeffrey L Sturchio A Study in Strategic Innovation PART TWO: BUSINESS ORGANIZATION Industrial Development of Mainland China 1912-1949 - J K Chang Takeover Bids in Britain before 1950 - Leslie Hannah An Exercise in Business ′Pre-History′ New Industries for Old? - Robert J Irving Some Investment Decisions of Sir W G Armstrong-Whitworth & Co Ltd, 1900-1914 Lancashire′s Last Stand - John Singleton, Declining Employment in the British Cotton Industry, 1950-1970 The British Experience of Profit Sharing - Derek Matthews Scale & Scope - Review Colloquium Diversity in Diversity - Philip Scranton Flexible Production and American Industrialisation, 1880-1930 Stategic Manoeuvring and Mass Market Dynamics - Michael Cusumano and Y Mylonadis The Triumph of VHS over Beta IBM and its Imitators - Steven W Usselman Organizational Capabilities and the Emergence of the International Computer Industry Organizing and Reorganizing the World Bank, 1946-1972 - Louis Galambos and David Milobsky A Comparative Perspective Elaborations, Revisions, Dissents - Richard R John, A D Chandler′s The Visible Hand after Twenty Years The Emergence of Big Business - Peter Wardley The Largest Corporate Employers of Labour in the UK, Germany, USA, c.1907 The Apotheosis of Holding Company Accounting - Kees Camfferman and Stephen A Zeff Unilever′s Financial Reporting Innovations from the 1920s to the 1940s PART THREE: GLOBAL BUSINESS China, the US Navy, and the Bethlehem Steel Company, 1909-1929 - W R Braisted Oil and Antitrust - B I Kaufman The Oil Cartel Case and the Cold War The Growth of the Transnational Industrial Firm in the United States and the United Kingdom - A D Chandler A Comparative Analysis Technology Transfer as War Booty - A Krammer The US Technical Oil Mission to Europe, 1945 The Emergence of US Multinational Enterprise - Michael French The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, 1910-1939 Japanese Multinationals in the United States - Mira Wilkins Continuity and Change, 1879-1990 The Green Revolution in India - G Parayil A Case Study of Technological Change The Marketing Strategies of Platt Bros & Co Ltd of Oldham, 1906-1940 - Douglas A Farnie Foreign Multinationals in British Manufacturing, 1850-1962 - Frances Bostock and Geoffrey Jones From Privilege to Popularity - P J Lyth and M L Dierikx The Growth of Leisure Air Travel since 1945 American Management Consulting Companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990: - Matthias Kipping Products, Reputation and Relationships PART FOUR: ENTREPRENEURS AND MANAGMENT Gentleman and Players - Donald C Coleman Exit, Voice, Loyalty as Responses to Decline - James Foreman-Peck The Rover Company in the Interwar Years University Graduates in Japanese Enterprises before the Second World War - Shin′ichi Yonekawa Business Education in Germany - Robert R Locke Past Systems and Current Practice Corporatism in Comparative Perspective - Larry G Gerber The Impact of the First World War on American and British Labor Relations Entrepreneurial Dominance in Businesses Large and Small, Past and Present - Harold C Livesay The Corporation Nobody Knew - Roland Marchand Bruce Barton, Alfred Sloan and the Founding of General Motors ′Family′ The Rise of Entrepreneurs in Nigerian Motor Transport - P Drummond-Thompson A Study in Indigenous Enterprise Deconstructing Nuffield - Roy Church The Evolution of Managerial Culture in the British Motor Car Industry Not Rosie the Riveter - M Walsh Women′s Diverse Roles in the Making of the American Long-Distance Bus Industry Show business in the living room′ - James L Baughman Management expectations for American television, 1947-56 The Business Doctors - Derek Matthews Accountants in British Management from the 19th Century to the Present Day Ferranti and the accountant, 1896-1975 - John F Wilson The Struggle Between Priorities and Reality PART FIVE: ETHICS AND ENVIRONMENT Nuclear Power and the Environment - J S Walker The Atomic Energy Commission and Thermal Pollution, 1965-1971 The Enlightened Paternalist in Action - David J Jeremy William Hesketh Lever at Port Sunlight before 1914 Working Environments - Arthur F McEvoy An Ecological Approach to Industrial Health and Safety Where lie the boundaries of the corporation? - Roland Marchand Explorations in corporate responsibility in the 1930s Accounting and Control in Barclays Bank (DCO) - Chibuike Uche The Lending to Africans Episode The Historical Development of Business Philanthropy - M Marinetto Social Responsibility in the New Corporate Economy Compensating the Workers - Geoffrey Tweedale and David J Jeremy Industrial Injury and Compensation in the British Asbestos Industry, 1930s-1960s Toxic Purity - C Warren The Progressive Era Origins of America′s Lead Paint Poisoning Epidemic Turning Silk Purses into Sows′ Ears - John Smith Environmental History and the Chemical Industry History and the Global Corporate Governance Revolution - Brian R Cheffins The UK Perspective Ownership Responsibilities and Corporate Governance - Sue Bowden The Crisis at Rolls Royce, 1968-1971