Industrialisation and industrial history Books
Carnegie Publishing Ltd Iron Harvests of the Field: The Making of Farm
Book SynopsisIn many ways this book tells a familiar story in British industry: of innovation and enterprise in the early decades ...of worldwide dominance at a time when Britain was the workshop of the world ...of wars and economic downturns ...of foreign competition ...and of relative and absolute decline on the path of - de-industrialisation in the latter part of the twentieth century. For most of this period the farm machine industry grew and matured. It is an inspiring story of technological achievement and of industrial success, as farmers and engineers brought iron and steel to fields which had - previously been the domain of locally made timber implements and power provided by horses.Agricultural technology moved on, inexorably, from broad-cast seed and the sound of the threshing flail, via the portable steam engine and the threshing machine, right through to the modern world of giant tractors - each with the power of 200 horses - combine harvesters and - impressively efficient farming methods.This book traces the broad sweep of the whole industry over 200 years, looking at many individual companies and products to explain how and why the farm machinery industry developed in the way it did. Important individual machines are described and illustrated in detail. The British farm machine industry is unlikely ever again to be large by world standards, nor to dominate the world stage as once it did. Yet the author traces a rich vein of innovation, enterprise and technological inspiration, often taking place within the large number of relatively small-scale, craft-based workshops which were so prevalent in the early decades. Rather than mere manufacturing, therefore, perhaps it is this tradition of technical innovation and invention which marked out the British farm machinery industry for historical greatness, and perhaps it is this tradition which will continue to mark it out in the future.Trade Review'With careful, scholarly analysis, author Peter Dewey - a lecturer in economic history at Royal Holloway, University of London - has pieced together a remarkable portrait of the development of the entire farm machinery industry ... Information flows from every page - and the budding student of agrarian economy and modern agri-business will be delighted by the graphs and tables which chart machinery exports. There are astonishing details of the men who pioneered the radical changes in the way food was harvested and brought to the population and the archive photographs and illustrations of everything British farm machinery history from Canadian Auto-Trucks to the 1958 Massey Ferguson trailed dung spreader are a delight ... This is a book of solid academic quality, but which will also fascinate the general reader who has an enquiring mind ... Mr Dewey deserves enormous praise for his landmark publication.From the review in Tractor and Machinery, July 2008[This] is the work of the mature historian, combining economic and business insight with a deep understanding of the practical aspects of the agricultural machinery industry and its role in the success of British farming over the past two centuries. It is a work of considerable scholarship tempered with agreeable lucidity.Based substantially on archive material from repositories the length and breadth of Britain, Iron Harvests leads us chronologically from the efforts of the wheelwright and carpenter of the late eighteenth century through to the creators of the behemoths stalking the fields of modern-day Britain. As he describes each generation of new machinery, with specific examples being covered in some detail, Dewey is careful to set developments alongside the national and international economic background and changes in the fortunes of the home-based agricultural economy. Indeed, one of the book's great strengths is its success in explaining the sometimes subtle relationships between technological change, social conditions and the relative success or failure of the many agricultural engineering firms whose beginnings lay in the industrial foment of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries ...Dr Dewey has produced a tour de force which is unlikely to be bettered in the near future. His beautifully illustrated and scholarly book is a major achievement. Whether they sip it like a good wine and savour it in small amounts, or swallow it whole like a Galway oyster, a generation of agricultural, economic, business and urban historians will benefit from Dewey's efforts.from the review in Agricultural History Review, by R. J. MOORE-COLYER Aberystwyth UniversityTable of ContentsList of tables ix Preface and acknowledgements xi 1 The origins of an industry, 1750A-1820 1The agricultural revolution 1Farming implements before 1800 4The technological revolution 9The entrepreneurs and their businesses 11The primacy of East Anglia 15Conclusion 18 2 Towards a national market, 1820A-1850 19The economic background 19The agricultural background 20Growth of the industry 23Products and technical change 28Transport developments 32Sales and marketing 35 3 At the works around 1850 39The growth of the factories 39Work in the factory 45Conclusion 49 4 A brief supremacy, 1850A-1875 50The expansion of the home market 50Technical and product change 51Steam Power I: Evolution of the portable engine 52The spread of the threshing machine 57Steam Power II: The steam plough 58Reaping machines 66Mowing machines 70Improved field machinery 73The growth and prosperity of firms 79Marketing 81The rise of the export trade 87Conclusion 91 5 Exports to the rescue, 1875A-1913 92Problems in the home market 92The shift to exports 94Marketing, agents and overseas depots 97The rise of North American competition 98The last export boom 101Conclusions 103 6 A mature industry, 1875A-1913 104The rise of some firms and the fall of others 104Specialisation in steam 112Portable engines 113Ploughing engines 115New products 120Dairy machinery 120Internal combustion engines 123Tractors 126The legal framework, scale of production, and profits 131Conclusion 136 7 At the works in 1913 137Expansion and the larger factory 137Work in the factory c.1913 141Labour conditions and trade unions 142Masters and men 146 8 Dynasties around 1914 147Founding families 147Local influence and social responsibilities 150Gracious living for the third generation? 152Conclusion 156 9 War work, 1914A-1918 157The background 157Government armament contracts 157Labour during the war 162The loss of exports and overseas assets 164Profits and taxes 166The agricultural market and the food production programme 169Fears for the future 178 10 A new world, 1919A-1939 183The boom of 1918A-19 and the slump of 1920A-23 183The collapse of export markets 187Attempts at restructuring the industry 191Changing patterns of demand at home 200The search for new products 206Diversification saves some firms 212Fordson, Ferguson and the revival of the market 214Conclusion 224 11 War work again, 1939A-1945 225Early preparations 225New opportunities in agriculture A- Plough for Victory 228Tractors 228Other machinery 232Government regulation and control 233Loss of export markets 241Armament work 242Imports and Lend-Lease 244Profits and taxes 247The industry in 1945 250 12 A very brief supremacy, 1945A-1973 254The new post-war world and the long economic boom 254Post-war readjustment 255Agricultural policy and prosperity 256The tractor boom 258Growth and structure of the industry 269New opportunities, new products 274The export boom 284Conclusion 286 13 Coping with the competition, 1973A-2000 288The new economic environment: deindustrialisation 288Changes in home demand 290The industry's output 291The maturity of the market 293New products and new versions of old products 295Tractors 295Field machinery 300Changes in the global machinery business 302The rise of foreign competition 304Readjustment and restructuring 306The industry at the end of the twentieth century 312 14 Retrospect 315Long-term factors in the development of the industry: technical change, demand and entrepreneurship 315A part of the British economic decline? 319Conclusion: a story of continuing change 321 Notes and references 323 Bibliography 338 Index 345
£27.00
Carnegie Publishing Ltd Preston Cotton Martyrs: The Millworkers Who
Book SynopsisPreston was no ordinary town during the nineteenth century. While king cotton reigned supreme throughout Lancashire, the underlying ills associated with this industry were very often highlighted particularly starkly there. Child labour, shocking working conditions with appallingly long hours and pitifully low wages, as well as the constant risk of suffering horrific accidents in the cotton mills, all fostered a deep sense of hostility among the operatives towards the employers. Overcrowded and insanitary housing, disease, poverty and awful wretchedness were often to be witnessed in the fast-growing working-class districts of Preston.Against this backdrop the nascent trade unions and political and social reformers began to challenge the unbridled mastery of the millowners. Trade disputes, confrontations, lockouts, strikes and tragic episodes of violence were the inevitable consequence of this lethal mix of hardship and employer intransigence, and dominated affairs in the town for many years. This book by local author J.S. Leigh is a powerful indictment of the industrial system that caused such suffering to Preston's cotton 'martyrs'.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 The early years 3 2 The quest for reform 14 3 Combination and radicalism 24 4 The Spinners' Strike of 1836A-1837 33 5 Chartism and the tragedy of 1842 44 6 Recession and the Ten Per Cent question 51 7 The great Preston Lockout of 1853A-1854 59 8 Strikebreakers 70 9 The Cotton Famine 80 Sources and bibliography 104
£9.99
Hansib Publications Limited Glimpses Of The Sugar Industry: The Art of Garnet
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£9.49
Polystar Press The Toll-houses of Norfolk
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£7.47
Polystar Press The Toll-houses of Cambridgeshire
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£7.95
Polystar Press The Toll-Houses of Staffordshire
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£9.95
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland From Goblets to Gaslights: The Scottish Glass
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£999.99
University of Hertfordshire Press Passing Through: The Grand Junction Canal in West
Book SynopsisThe fifty years from the last decade of the eighteenth century saw great changes in Britain. Significant technological and economic change, not to mention wars, affected great swathes of the population and profoundly changed many aspects of life. In this book Fabian Hiscock considers this dramatic upheaval as it played out in western Hertfordshire, focusing in particular on just one of the many innovations of the time: the Grand Junction Canal, created to connect the Midlands with London. Having described the complex process of creating the Canal itself, the author turns to how western Hertfordshire experienced, and responded to, the new trade route that now traversed its fields and settlements. In the area’s towns and villages - particularly Rickmansworth, Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring - the Canal made an impact, but to what extent did it live up to the promises made by its promoters? And what were the impacts on trade and transport, on work and home life? Did it create jobs and wealth for local people? Or did it simply pass through, leaving those living on either side relatively unaffected? Whether and in what way western Hertfordshire changed as a result of the Grand Junction Canal is the focus of this work. 1841 is the chosen end date for the study period because of the coincidence of the Census undertaken that year, which sheds some light on the industrial make-up of the area, the tithe awards made between 1838 and 1844, allowing study of the Canal’s effect on land ownership and usage across the area, and the start of the London and Birmingham Railway’s real economic effect. In combining canal history with a detailed social and economic study of a part of the county that is not much written about, Fabian Hiscock has written a superbly researched and wide-reaching book that will be of interest to a broad range of readers.
£16.14
University of Hertfordshire Press The Industrious Child Worker: Child labour and
Book SynopsisStudies of child labour have examined the experiences of child workers in agriculture, mining and textile mills, yet surprisingly little research has focused on child labour in manufacturing towns. This book investigates the extent and nature of child labour in Birmingham and the West Midlands, from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. It considers the economic contributions of child workers under the age of 14 and the impact of early work on their health and education. Child labour in the region was not a short-lived stage of the early Industrial Revolution but an integral part of industry throughout the nineteenth century. Parents regarded their children as potentially valuable contributors to the family economy, encouraging families to migrate from rural areas so that their children could work from an early age in the manufacture of pins, nails, buttons, glass, locks and guns as well as tin-plating, carpet-weaving, brass-casting and other industries. The demand for young workers in Birmingham was greater than that for adults; in Mary Nejedly's detailed analysis the importance of children's earnings to the family economy becomes clear, as well as the role played by child workers in industrialisation itself. In view of the economic benefit of children's labour to families as well as employers, both children's education and health could and did suffer. As well as working at harmful processes that produced dangerous fumes and dust or exposed them to poisonous substances, children also suffered injuries in the workplace, mainly to the head, eyes and fingers, and were often subjected to ill-treatment from adult workers. The wide gulf in economic circumstances that existed between the families of skilled workers and those of unskilled workers, unemployed workers or single-parent families also becomes evident. Attitudes towards childhood changed over the course of the period, however, with a greater emphasis being placed on the role of education for all children as a means of reducing pauperism and dependence on the poor rate. Concerns about health also gradually emerged, together with laws to limit work for children both by age and hours worked. Mary Nejedly's clear-eyed research sheds fresh light on the life of working children and increases our knowledge of an important aspect of social and economic history.Table of Contents1 Introduction 2 Parish apprentices and the old Poor Law 3 Birmingham workhouse children 4 The industrious child worker 5 Child labour and the family economy 6 Education, industrialisation and child labour 7 The health and ill-health of child workers 8 Set adrift: Birmingham’s child migrants 9 Childhood redefined 10 Conclusion
£16.14
University of Hertfordshire Press Bricks of Victorian London: A social and economic
Book SynopsisMany of London’s Victorian buildings are built of coarse-textured yellow bricks. These are ‘London stocks’, produced in very large quantities all through the nineteenth century and notable for their ability to withstand the airborne pollutants of the Victorian city. Whether visible or, as is sometimes the case, hidden behind stonework or underground, they form a major part of the fabric of the capital. Until now, little has been written about how and where they were made and the people who made them. Peter Hounsell has written a detailed history of the industry which supplied these bricks to the London market, offering a fresh perspective on the social and economic history of the city. In it he reveals the workings of a complex network of finance and labour. From landowners who saw an opportunity to profit from the clay on their land, to entrepreneurs who sought to build a business as brick manufacturers, to those who actually made the bricks, the book considers the process in detail, placing it in the context of the supply-and-demand factors that affected the numbers of bricks produced and the costs involved in equipping and running a brickworks. Transport from the brickfields to the market was crucial and Dr Hounsell conducts a full survey of the different routes by which bricks were delivered to building sites - by road, by Thames barge or canal boat, and in the second half of the century by the new railways. The companies that made the bricks employed many thousands of men, women and children and their working lives, homes and culture are looked at here, as well as the journey towards better working conditions and wages. The decline of the handmade yellow stock was eventually brought about by the arrival of the machine-made Fletton brick that competed directly with it on price. Brickmaking in the vicinity of London finally disappeared after the Second World War. Although its demise has left little evidence in the landscape, this industry influenced the development of many parts of London and the home counties, and this book provides a valuable record of it in its heyday.Table of ContentsIntroduction PART 1 Brickfields Chapter 1: A brick-built city: London brickmaking at the beginning of the nineteenth century Chapter 2: From clay pit to clamp: manufacturing the London stock brick Chapter 3: Finding the clay: landowners, brickmakers and the availability of land Chapter 4: ‘A rage for building’: demand for bricks in Victorian London and how it was met Chapter 5: Brickfields in town and country PART 2 Brickmakers Chapter 6: Builders, brickmakers and speculators: brickmaking businesses and their owners Chapter 7: Land, machinery and labour: operating and financing the brickfield Chapter 8: The market for bricks: brickmakers, builders’ merchants and customers Chapter 9: From brickfield to building site: delivering the brick by road, rail and water PART 3 Brickies Chapter 10: ‘Hard and inappropriate labour’: the brickies at work Chapter 11: ‘The perfection of untidiness, dirt and disease’: the brickies at home Chapter 12: ‘Habits of intemperance’: the brickies and the beershop Chapter 13: ‘Profane workmen’: the brickies at prayer Chapter 14: Pug boys and barrow loaders: the children of the brickfields Chapter 15: ‘The great struggle’: industrial disputes and trade unions in the brick industry PART 4 An industry in decline Chapter 16: ‘The chief market is London’: the challenge of the Fletton brick Chapter 17: Into the new century: stock brickmaking after 1900
£31.50
Levellers Press The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and
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£18.52
Oxford University Press Weaving Histories
Book SynopsisWeaving Histories looks at the economic history of South Asia from a fresh perspective, through a detailed study of the handloom industry of South India between 1800 and 1960, drawing out its wider implications for the Indian economy. It employs an unusual array of sources, including paintings and textile samples as well as archival records, to excavate the links between cotton growing, cleaning, spinning and weaving before the nineteenth century. The rupture and re-configuration of these links produced a sea-change in the lives of ordinary weavers. Weaving Histories examines the configuration of forceslocal, regional, national and globalthat drove this transformation, and uncovers its effects on different groups of weavers.The handloom industry is used as a case study to throw light on the historical emergence of the ''informal sector'' in India, and to re-examine contemporary debates about industrialisation and economic development.Trade ReviewIn Weaving Histories, Karuna Dietrich Wielenga mobilizes an impressive range of sources to show that for at least south India many of the truisms often repeated are, if not incorrect, then surely imprecise. To understand the important revisionist work of this book, the author provides a careful analysis not just of weaving but also of raw cotton cultivation and spinning. * Giorgio Riello, European University Institute, Labour History Review *By providing the local, granular details of handloom production, Weaving Histories not only sets the stage for a nuanced understanding of a sophisticated industry within a complex socioeconomic environment but also offers greater targeted insights into its technical, social, and economic operations. * Alka Raman, Victoriaand Albert Museum, Technology and Culture, Volume 63, Number 1 *Weaving History is an exceptional scholarly work that not only engages lively with these debates but indeed also offers answers and insightful analysis. To begin with the book combines different traditions to produce an excellent outcome. It bridges economic, social, cultural, and labor history while it rarely compromises on any of these fronts. The length and breadth of the sources employed in the book is similarly truly impressive ... Weaving History is thus an outstanding contribution to existing debates and would hopefully bring new life to some of the classical questions concerning the economic/social nexus. * Nikolay Kamenov, H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1: The Geography of Weaving: South India in the Early Nineteenth Century 2: Statistics, Looms and People: The Changing Contours of the Handloom Industry 3: From Cotton to Cloth: The Linking Threads 4: Weaving: Changing Structures 5: Caste and Work 6: Solidarity and Action 7: The State and the Weaver Conclusion Appendix: Note on the Loom Tax Bibliography Index
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press The Work Ethic in Industrial America 18501920
Book SynopsisThe phrase a strong work ethic conjures images of hard-driving employees working diligently for long hours. But where did this ideal come from, and how has it been buffeted by changes in work itself? This book shows how the new work culture permeated society, including literature, politics, the emerging feminist movement, and the labor movement.Trade Review"A delight to read." (Journal of Interdisciplinary History)"
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press The Postal Age
Book SynopsisPresents an argument that postal network initiated cultural shifts during the nineteenth century, laying the foundation for the interconnectedness that defines our world of telecommunications. This book traces these shifts from their beginnings. It paints a picture of a society where possibilities proliferated for communications.Trade Review"The Postal Age is engagingly written, rich with anecdotes and observations that dramatize and illuminate the manifold facets of 'postal culture' in the antebellum United States.... It is a major contribution to American social history and to the history of communications in general." - Geoffrey Nunberg, author of Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Controversial Times "The Postal Age succeeds in joining two kinds of history writing: the thoroughly professional and the engagingly popular. David M. Henkin offers a clinic in how to combine social analysis of institutions with cultural study of the rituals, emotions, and meanings by which people pattern their lives." - Richard Wightman Fox, author of Jesus in America"
£26.00
The University of Chicago Press HumanBuilt World How to Think about Technology
Book SynopsisIn Human-Built World, Thomas P. Hughes restores to technology the richness and depth it deserves by writing its intellectual history.Trade Review"Thomas P. Hughes presents a wide-ranging yet deeply insightful view of technology and how its relationship to society and culture has changed over time. Readers of this book will benefit greatly from Hughes's informed and understanding perspective on what technology is and how it is perceived." - Henry Petroski, author of Small Things Considered; "Human-Built World offers a thoroughgoing, incisively rendered and engaging history of humanity's relationship to technology.... Although Hughes gives invention and engineering a central role in the creation of our world, the purpose of his sprightly polemic is to rail against technological determinism.... As technically based systems already invisibly govern so much of our daily lives and will continue to penetrate our culture still further, this is a timely and urgent book." - Adam Wishart, Times Literary Supplement; "Do we 'think' about technology? Probably not. It is the stuff that surrounds us. Yet even if we no longer wonder at the internet or mobile telephones, we worry about chemical weapons and human cloning. Indeed, as Thomas P. Hughes shows in this brilliantly concise history, people were arguing about the rights and wrongs of technology long before the term gained currency in the late 20th century." - Mark Archer, Financial Times"
£21.00
The University of Chicago Press The Enlightenment and the Book Scottish Authors
Book SynopsisOffers an understanding of the Enlightenment and the forgotten role of publishing during that period. This title seeks to remedy the common misperception that such classics as The Wealth of Nations and The Life of Samuel Johnson were made by their authors alone.Trade Review"A major achievement." - Times Literary Supplement "This is an exceptional piece of work. It is both an astonishing accumulation of informative detail and a multiplicity of lively interconnected narratives of authors, books, booksellers, printers and other subjects. It is a very useful reference book, with its nearly 150 pages of tables and bibliographies; it is also an engaging and stimulating read." - Antonia Forster, Review of English Studies "Discerningly illustrated, at once scholarly and accessible, this is an essential addition not only to eighteenth-century studies but also to the history of the book." - Atlantic"
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Networks of Improvement
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Richly archival and powerful in its conceptions, Mee’s Networks of Improvement boldly goes where few literary historians have been before, into the heartlands of industrializing Britain for a magisterially orchestrated and methodologically groundbreaking study. Mee has given us a picture of British intellectual and social relationships that will stand unmatched for a long time to come.” * Jon Klancher, Carnegie Mellon University *“Mee offers a sophisticated account of reading as a social practice central to the circulation of knowledge, both grand and granular, responsive to large questions with local particularities. Networks of Improvement is comprehensive, clearly written, and carefully organized.” * Jonathan Sachs, Concordia University *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part One: Networks and Institutions 1 Power, Knowledge, and Literature 2 The Collision of Mind with Mind: Manchester and Newcastle, 1781–1823 3 Improvement Redux: Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield, 1812–32 Part Two: Bodies and Machines 4 Three Physicians around Manchester 5 Hannah Greg’s Domestic Mission 6 An Inventive Age 7 Lives, Damned Lives, and Statistics Acknowledgments Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
£84.00
The University of Chicago Press Networks of Improvement
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Richly archival and powerful in its conceptions, Mee’s Networks of Improvement boldly goes where few literary historians have been before, into the heartlands of industrializing Britain for a magisterially orchestrated and methodologically groundbreaking study. Mee has given us a picture of British intellectual and social relationships that will stand unmatched for a long time to come.” * Jon Klancher, Carnegie Mellon University *“Mee offers a sophisticated account of reading as a social practice central to the circulation of knowledge, both grand and granular, responsive to large questions with local particularities. Networks of Improvement is comprehensive, clearly written, and carefully organized.” * Jonathan Sachs, Concordia University *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part One: Networks and Institutions 1 Power, Knowledge, and Literature 2 The Collision of Mind with Mind: Manchester and Newcastle, 1781–1823 3 Improvement Redux: Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield, 1812–32 Part Two: Bodies and Machines 4 Three Physicians around Manchester 5 Hannah Greg’s Domestic Mission 6 An Inventive Age 7 Lives, Damned Lives, and Statistics Acknowledgments Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
£28.00
Columbia University Press Vernacular Industrialism in China Local
Book SynopsisBy examining the manufacturing, commercial, and cultural activities of the maverick industrialist Chen Diexian (18791940), Eugenia Lean illustrates how lettered men of early-twentieth-century China engaged in vernacular industrialism, the pursuit of industry and science outside of conventional venues.Trade ReviewThoroughly researched and elegantly crafted . . . [this book] sheds fresh light on early twentieth-century China at a time when the nation was just entering global capitalism. * Journal of Chinese History *Lean’s volume is an important contribution to our knowledge of Chinese industry’s progress in the first half of the twentieth century. * Technology and Culture *Vernacular Industrialism in China is an astonishingly rich and original microhistory. In telling the fascinating story of Chen Diexian, Lean challenges us to rethink large swaths of modern Chinese history. An outstanding achievement of wit, erudition, and insight. -- Fa-ti Fan, author of British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural EncounterThis pathbreaking book conclusively demonstrates that the values and habits of classically trained Chinese literati, so scorned by May Fourth modernizers, were fully reconcilable with modern science and technology. Eugenia Lean's “vernacular industrialism” will be a touchstone for all future work on the history of science and technology in China. -- Sigrid Schmalzer, author of Red Revolution, Green Revolution: Scientific Farming in Socialist ChinaEugenia Lean has written an engrossing study of how popular industrialism arose in early twentieth-century China. Chen Diexian emerges from its pages as both representative and remarkable: an amateur scientist and literary celebrity turned serial entrepreneur, consumer products magnate, and do-it-yourself modernist. Through Chen’s career, Vernacular Industrialism in China traces a fascinating history of everyday innovations. -- Christopher Rea, author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in ChinaOne of the great pleasures of reading Lean’s study is how she brings together Chen Diexian’s full range of literaryand entrepreneurial achievements for this portrait. She completes it with new analytical approaches to the social history of modern science and small-scale manufacturing in twentieth-century China. * Technology and Culture *This is a highly learned book. Lean reads her sources closely and effectively situates her observations within a deeper Chinese past and across multiple thematic fields. . . [H]er observations shed much new light on the workings of the wider industrial modern world, and her concept of vernacular industrialism will find purchase in contexts far beyond cuttlefish bone–strewn Chinese shores. * Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society *This book, with its focus on light industry and consumer goods, is altogether a welcome addition to the fields of business and economic history of modern China. * East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine *A riveting microhistory with broader historiographical ambitions . . . Lean’s decision to focus on an individual entrepreneur makes this book highly readable for students of modern Chinese history and general readers who are interested in business history, knowledge production, science, and industry. * Business History Review *Lean’s study contributes a deeply researched argument regarding an identifiable social fraction she calls 'vernacular industrialists.' * H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Gentlemanly Experimentation in Turn-of-the-Century Hangzhou1. Utility of the UselessPart II: Manufacturing Knowledge, 1914–19272. One Part Cow Fat, Two Parts Soda: Recipes for the Inner Chambers, 1914–19153. An Enterprise of Common Knowledge: Fire Extinguishers, 1916–1935Part III: Manufacturing Objects, 1913–19424. Chinese Cuttlefish and Global Circuits: The Association of Household Industries5. What’s in a Name? From Studio Appellation to Commercial Trademark6. Compiling the Industrial Modern, 1930–1941ConclusionGlossaryNotesReferencesIndex
£46.75
University of Illinois Press Building the Black Metropolis African American
Book SynopsisTrade Review“A major contribution on the Black Metropolis as a black business movement, a black public sphere, and visions of freedom in the city.”--Quincy T. Mills, author of Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America"Weems (Wichita State) and Chambers (Univ. of Illinois) provide a detailed look into the forces and people who shaped Chicago's black business and metropolis since the 1800s. . . . Recommended."--Choice"Building the Black Metropolis is an insightful and informative book that will appeal to a wide general audience, and hopefully all who read it will be inspired to continue to support African American entrepreneurs and their ongoing business ventures throughout the country." --Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"Building the Black Metropolis is a solid collection. Taken as a whole, these essays reveal how racial segregation has created inequality, generation after generation--and the limits of racial solidarity to overcome it." --Journal of American History"A work that examines history in its own skin. At a time when scholarship is praising immigrant entrepreneurship in America, it is great to see a book that says, 'Black America has been there, done that, and got the T-Shirt.' A work that should bind the past with the future because it recreates a model of business success that holds the key to the future. An American Story well done."--John Sibley Butler, author of Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Building the Black Metropolis
Book SynopsisFrom Jean Baptiste Point DuSable to Oprah Winfrey, black entrepreneurship has helped define Chicago. Robert E. Weems Jr. and Jason P. Chambers curate a collection of essays that place the city as the center of the black business world in the United States. Ranging from titans like Anthony Overton and Jesse Binga to McDonald's operators to black organized crime, the scholars shed light on the long-overlooked history of African American work and entrepreneurship since the Great Migration. Together they examine how factors like the influx of southern migrants and the city's unique segregation patterns made Chicago a prolific incubator of productive business developmentand made building a black metropolis as much a necessity as an opportunity. Contributors: Jason P. Chambers, Marcia Chatelain, Will Cooley, Robert Howard, Christopher Robert Reed, Myiti Sengstacke Rice, Clovis E. Semmes, Juliet E. K. Walker, and Robert E. Weems Jr.Trade Review“A major contribution on the Black Metropolis as a black business movement, a black public sphere, and visions of freedom in the city.”--Quincy T. Mills, author of Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America"Weems (Wichita State) and Chambers (Univ. of Illinois) provide a detailed look into the forces and people who shaped Chicago's black business and metropolis since the 1800s. . . . Recommended."--Choice"Building the Black Metropolis is an insightful and informative book that will appeal to a wide general audience, and hopefully all who read it will be inspired to continue to support African American entrepreneurs and their ongoing business ventures throughout the country." --Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"Building the Black Metropolis is a solid collection. Taken as a whole, these essays reveal how racial segregation has created inequality, generation after generation--and the limits of racial solidarity to overcome it." --Journal of American History"A work that examines history in its own skin. At a time when scholarship is praising immigrant entrepreneurship in America, it is great to see a book that says, 'Black America has been there, done that, and got the T-Shirt.' A work that should bind the past with the future because it recreates a model of business success that holds the key to the future. An American Story well done."--John Sibley Butler, author of Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics
£21.59
Indiana University Press Indianapolis Union and Belt Railroads
Book SynopsisIn an era dominated by huge railroad corporations, Indianapolis Union and Belt Railroads reveals the important role two small railroad companies had on development and progress in the Hoosier State.Trade ReviewDarbee's highly readable text shows how the IU made possible the first great big-city union station. . . . You don't have to be a Hoosier to fall under the city's spell, thanks in part to a generous mix of first-rate photos and maps. * Classic Trains *You don't have to be a Hoosier to fall under the city's spell, thanks in part to a generous mix of first-rate photos and maps. * Classic Trains *In this exceptional volume, historian Jeffrey Darbee traces the development of rail transportation in the city of Indianapolis from its beginning in 1847 to the present. * The Michigan Railfan *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionAcknowledgments1. Early Indianapolis: Settling "The West"2. The Railroad Arrives: A New Travel Technology3. The Union4. The Belt: Another New Idea5. The City and Its RailroadsBibliographyIndex
£999.99
WW Norton & Co Behemoth
Book SynopsisA sweeping, global history of the rise of the factory and its effects on society.Trade Review"An insightful history of giant factories... Mr Freeman rolls up his sleeves and delves into the nitty gritty of manufacturing. He successfully melds together those nuggets with social history, on the shop floor and beyond the factory walls, from union battles to worker exploitation and, in the case of Foxconn, suicides." -- The Economist"... [Freeman] lay[s] out two centuries of factory production all over the world in ways that are accessible, cogent, occasionally riveting and thoroughly new. The history of large factories, as Freeman outlines it, is the history of the modern world and most everything we see, experience and touch." -- International New York Times"Freeman has written a superb account... The author’s sympathy, insight and exemplary anecdotes make this a marvellous book." -- The Guardian"Carefully researched and energetically written, Freeman’s book takes in the first factories in Britain and New England, the great mills of late-Victorian Pennsylvania, the rise of Fordism in the 1920s, the world of the industrial Soviet Union and today’s colossal factories in China and Vietnam." -- The Sunday Times Ireland"... Behemoth is a tour de force, a powerful liberal retelling of the factory narrative at a time of Trump and all he represents, when it badly needs to be retold." -- Times Higher Education"Freeman does an essential service by publicising the continuance of a system whose foundations rest on a banal evil." -- The Spectator"... fascinating book..." -- The New Statesman"Rich and ambitious... More than an economic history, or a chronicle of architectural feats and labor movements, Behemoth depicts a world in retreat that still looms large in the national imagination." -- Jennifer Szalai - The New York Times"Fascinating... Freeman shows how factories have had an overwhelming influence on the way we work, think, move, play and fight." -- Scott W. Berg - The Washington Post"You may have no detailed knowledge of factories except that they can be converted into cool lofts. In that case, you’ll learn much from historian Joshua Freeman." -- Jonathan Rose - The Wall Street Journal"It is a book of epic scope." -- 5 Star Review - The Telegraph"[Joshua Freeman] handles his material 'with the seriousness it deserves' and if it 'can feel a little slow-going at times, that's partly because of the knottiness of the history Freeman lays out, as well as his honourable refusal to resort to simplistic notions of grand progress or portentous doom'." -- The Oldie
£20.89
WW Norton & Co Leviathan
Book SynopsisTrade Review"...perfect summer reading, especially if you happen to be spending the summer by the sea, or on it." -- Adam Kirsch - New York Sun"Leviathan is an exhaustive, richly detailed history of industrial American whaling...Dolin succeeds admirably at what he sets out to do: tell the story of one of the strangest industries in American history." -- Bruce Barcott - New York Times"Starred Review. Engrossing account...at once grand and quirky, entertaining and informative." -- Publishers Weekly"Mr. Dolin handles this long, complex tale with great skill, both as a historian and as a writer (the bibliography and illustrations are splended too)...Leviathan is thoroughly engaging." -- John Steele Gordon - The Wall Street Journal
£999.99
LUP - University of Michigan Press Textile Ascendancies
Book Synopsis
£19.90
The University of Michigan Press Textile Ascendancies
Book SynopsisUntil this century, Northern Nigeria was a major centre of textile production and trade. Textile Ascendancies examines this dramatic change in textile aesthetics, technologies, and social values in order to explain the extraordinary shift in textile demand, production, and trade.Trade Review“Textile Ascendancies is an empirically rich, beautifully illustrated collection of essays that explores the meanings, making and trading of cloth in northern Nigeria over more than a century. The collection’s contribution to the history of aesthetics, commodity meanings and commercial transactions in Africa is profound. There is no other book that attempts such an ambitious agenda, exploring the diverse histories of any product over such a long period of time.” —Laura Fair, Michigan State University “A detailed African textile history that provides rich insights into the history of handweaving, dyeing, and local aesthetics.” —Karen Tranberg Hansen, Northwestern University
£64.95
University of Michigan Press The Glass City Toledo and the Industry That Built
Book Synopsis
£48.95
The University of Michigan Press SitDown
Book Synopsis
£60.95
University of California Press From Demon to Darling A Legal History of Wine in
Book SynopsisA story of fits and starts that provides a chronicle of the history of wine in the United States told through the lens of the law. It explains how laws shape the wine industry in such areas as pricing and taxation, licensing, appellations, health claims and warnings, labeling, and domestic and international commerce.Trade Review"The legal machinations of wine, described here, are a hoot." Miami Herald "A thorough consideration of American wine's legal history." SF Chronicle "Provides the definitive background for understanding the competing legal, political, economic, and social forces shaping the ongoing evolution of America's wine culture." The World Of Fine Wine "Highly readable ... Should be a must-read for anyone who wants to produce or sell wine in this country." San Francisco Chronicle "A splendid volume... This wonderful book should be agreeable to a great many palates." Choice "Very engaging." Bookforum "Illuminating, provocative..." A Best Book of 2009 Wine & Spirits Magazine "Highly recommended." -- Charles Ludington Law & History Review "An engaging style that makes learning how law and wine have intertwined throughout this country's history an enlightening educational journey." Wine Spectator "A fascinating work." California GrapevineTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Wine Is Life: A Foreword by Margrit Biever Mondavi Acknowledgments Note Introduction 1. Temperance 2. National Prohibition 3. Solving Problems Past 4. Transforming Wine in American Culture Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
£20.70
University of California Press The Filth of Progress
Book SynopsisFor more than a century, accounts of progress in the West foregrounded the technological feats performed while canals and railroads were built and lionized the capitalists who financed the projects. This book focuses on the suffering and survival of the workers who were treated as outsiders.Trade Review"Despite navigating such huge geographical and cultural boundaries, The Filth of Progress is able to present a coherent history, which hardly veers off the main tracks of its arguments... an instant classic." * Oregon Historical Quarterly *"The Filth of Progress provides fresh insight into the United States' 19th-century infrastrastructure projects by illuminating their 'dark underbelly' . . . . Dearinger's success and originality lie in his comparative framework, which examines how Irish, Chinese, and Mormon and other native-born workers struggled for identity. . . . An excellent analysis." * Pacific Northwest Quarterly *"Dearinger has added a thoughtful and well-researched contribution to this genre of scholarship." * Labour/Le Travail *"An important contribution to American history and should have an exceptionally profound effect on our understandings of western history and the "transportation frontier" in particular." * Montana: The Magazine of Western History *"The Filth of Progress... [gives] voice to those absent from the official records: here Dearinger’s work triumphs and becomes a fascinating study of a tumultuous period of American history and the formation of American identity." * Journal of American Culture *"The Filth of Progress offers important directives for Gilded Age historians. It urges us to remember who built the infrastructure that defined the Gilded Age. It asks us to consider the legacies of their work in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It reminds us that creating the idea of progress was also laborious. And, in suggesting just how much Gilded Age ideas about nation, citizenship, masculinity, and work were shaped by omitting Irish, Mormon, and Chinese workers, it reminds us of the power and perils of forgetting." * Journal of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era *"Dearinger builds upon the work of scholars such as Gunther Peck and Andrew Urban to reincorporate waged work, reframed in Western and global historiographical turns, within the newer history of capitalism that has tended to emphasize the importance of slavery, commodification, and finance. The Filth of Progress deserves a wide readership." * American Historical Review *"Dearinger illustrates how class, ethnicity, and gender intersected in workers’ quests to reorient their personal — and, perhaps, the nation’s — destiny." * Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas *"The Filth of Progress joins books such as Peter Way’s Common Labour (1993) in reclaiming the lives of unskilled common laborers. . . . Dearinger has produced a thoughtful and thought-provoking book that complements critical revisionist histories of nineteenth-century American development." * Journal of American History *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments 1 * "Bind the Republic Together": Canals, Railroads, and the Paradox of American Progress 2 * "A Wretched and Miserable Condition": Irish Ditchdiggers, the Triumph of Progress, and the Contest of Canal Communities in the Hoosier State 3 * "Abuse of the Labour and Lives of Men": Irish Construction Workers and the Violence of Progress on the Illinois Transportation Frontier 4 * "Hell (and Heaven) on Wheels": Mormons, Immigrants, and the Reconstruction of American Progress and Masculinity on the Transcontinental Railroad 5 * "The Greatest Monument of Human Labor": Chinese Immigrants, the Landscape of Progress, and the Work of Building and Celebrating the Transcontinental Railroad 6 * End-of-Track: Reflections on the History of Immigrant Labor and American Progress Notes BibliographyIndex
£22.50
University of California Press Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern
Book SynopsisDrawing on three detailed case studies the sewing machine, a glass bottle blowing factory, and the cyanide process for gold and silver refining, this book explores a central paradox of economic growth in nineteenth-century Mexico.Trade Review"Beatty's book is a groundbreaking study, a tour de force that should be required reading for anyone interested in economic development or the history of technology in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world." American Historical Review
£27.00
University of California Press The Fishmeal Revolution The Industrialization of
Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Fishmeal Revolution will appeal to many scholars, particularly those interested in envirotechnical history and transnational history. Scholars interested in scientific uncertainty, particularly around the environment, will learn much from this volume. By telling a story that includes businesses, fishers, scientific researchers, and government officials across the globe, the monograph also demonstrates how to simultaneously tell history from below and from above." * Technology and Culture *"The Fishmeal Revolution provides an excellent overview of a dizzying array of primary source material in a concise history based on a well-informed discussion of the Humboldt Current region’s natural properties. It is a welcome addition to literature on resource extraction and human-environment interactions in Latin America." * Hispanic American Historical Review *"At once unsettling and highly informative, Kristin Wintersteen’s much-needed exploration of the history of the Peruvian and Chilean fisheries focuses on the huge volumes of fish hidden in the diets of billions of people globally. A rich, quasi-environmental history." * Isis *"The Fishmeal Revolution is recommended reading for anyone interested in the intersection of green and blue revolutions. . . . Patient readers who work their way through these somewhat inelegant initial chapters will, however, be richly rewarded." * H-Net Reviews *"In…lucid prose. . . .The Fishmeal Revolution makes a significant contribution to the history of global food systems and the environment precisely because the lens is transnational and centers ecology as a distinct historical force." * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Acronyms Introduction 1 • A Deep History of the Humboldt Current Ecosystem 2 • The New Industrial Ecology of Animal Farming in the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds, 1840–1930 3 • Protein from the Sea: The "Nutrition Problem" and the Industrialization of Fishing in Chile and Peru 4 • The Golden Anchoveta: The Making of the World's Largest Single-Species Fishery in Chimbote, Peru 5 • States of Uncertainty: Science, Policy, and the Bio-economics of Peru's 1972 Fishmeal Collapse 6 • The Translocal History of Industrial Fisheries in Iquique and Talcahuano, Chile Conclusion Appendix A. Glossary of Marine Species Appendix B. Diagram of Humboldt Current Trophic Web Appendix C. Map of Major Current Systems of Eastern and Central Pacific Ocean Appendix D. Map of World Fisheries Management Zones Appendix E. Graph of World Fisheries Landings and ENSO Events, 1950–2014 Notes Bibliography Index
£22.50
Harvard University Press Shaping the Industrial Century
Book SynopsisChandler 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.Trade ReviewChandler has written an account of the industry's turbulent century that is analytical and lucid...Chandler does a remarkable job of covering the development of two industries that changed the world in the 20th century. Over the years, I have read several books that depict the colourful story of individual chemical companies, but here is one that paints them all on the same canvas. -- John Emsley * Times Higher Education Supplement *One cannot read Shaping the Industrial Century without a sense that this is a work informed by decades of inquiry into business history and the rise and fall of companies and industries across the world. The author moves quite easily and confidently across a wide range of firms to summarize the key decisions that formed the fate of these businesses...Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.'s unique perspective helps to broaden the view of the history of the pharmaceutical industry, and thereby contributes notably to the history of pharmacy. -- John P. Swann * Pharmacy in History *Shaping the Industrial Century represents an important extension of the framework that Alfred Chandler has developed in several seminal books published during his long and productive career...Chandler has done more than provide a case study of the evolution of the modern chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Shaping the Industrial Century is a dynamic demonstration of how strategy takes precedence over structure in determining the ongoing success or failure of an industry that has reached its mature phase. -- John K. Smith, Jr. * Business History Review *
£24.26
Harvard University, Asia Center Building for Oil
Book SynopsisBuilding for Oil is a historical account of the oil town of Daqing in northeastern China during the formative years of the People's Republic and describes Daqing's rise and fall as a national model city. Hou Li traces the roots of the Chinese socialist state and its early industrialization and modernization policies.
£999.99
MP-KAN Uni Press of Kansas Octopuss Garden
Book SynopsisThe Octopus’s Garden continues to shape Southern Californians’ understanding of their past. In bringing together multiple storylines, Benjamin Jenkins provides a complex and fresh perspective on the impact of citrus agriculturalists and railroad companies in Southern Californian history.Trade Review"In Octopus’s Garden, Jenkins has fashioned a worthy contribution to the history of both railroads and agriculture. Many beautiful illustrations complement Jenkins’s thoroughly researched and well-written text, which details how railroads and citrus culture together contributed to the social and economic transformation of Southern California."—Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes, St. Louis Mercantile Library Endowed Professor of Transportation Studies, emeritus, University of Missouri-St. LouisTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Octopus’s Garden 1. Southern California Country: History of the Southland, 1769-1876 2. Steel, Steam, and Citrus: The Economic Transformation of Southern California, 1870-1887 3. The Boom and Beyond, 1887-1903 4. Gridiron Garden, 1903-1920 5. Fruits of Their Labors, 1920-1939 6. Quick Decline, 1940-1996 Conclusion: Remembering the Octopus’s Garden Notes Bibliography Index
£41.36
Pluto Press Wobblies of the World A Global History of the IWW
Book SynopsisA history of the global nature of the radical union, The Industrial Workers of the WorldTrade Review'Finally! A book about the IWW that takes seriously their global self-description. This book is a landmark and a sea beacon in the history of the planetary proletariat' -- Marcus Rediker, author of Slave Ship: A Human History (John Murray, 2008)'A splendid project and a vitally important contribution to the understanding of labor as a social movement.' -- Paul Buhle, author of Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (2005)'As a second-generation member of the IWW, I am delighted to see this outstanding collection of essays on the Wobblies, their achievements, and their substantial impact despite severe repression' -- Noam Chomsky'[A] valuable collection' -- Against the Current'Fantastic' -- Labor Notes'Recommended' -- CHOICETable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Part I: Transnational Influences on the IWW 1. 'A Cosmopolitan Crowd': Transnational Anarchists, the IWW and the American Radical Press - Kenyon Zimmer 2. Sabotage, the IWW and Repression: How the American Reinterpretation of a French Concept Gave Rise to a New International Conception of Sabotage - Dominique Pinsolle 3. Living Social Dynamite: Early Twentieth-Century IWW-South Asia Connections - Tariq Khan 4. IWW Internationalism and Interracial Organizing in the Southwestern United States - David M. Struthers 5. Spanish Anarchists and Maritime Workers in the IWW - Bieito Alonso Part II: The IWW in the Wider World 6. The IWW and the Dilemmas of Labor Internationalism - Wayne Thorpe 7. The IWW in Tampico: Anarchism, Internationalism and Solidarity Unionism in a Mexican Port - Kevan Antonio Aguilar 8. The Wobblies of the North Woods: Finnish Labor Radicalism and the IWW in Northern Ontario - Saku Pinta 9. 'We Must Do Away with Racial Prejudice and Imaginary Boundary Lines': British Columbia’s Wobblies before the First World War - Mark Leier 10. Wobblies Down Under: The IWW in Australia - Verity Burgmann 11. Ki Nga Kaimahi Maori ('To All Maori Workers'): The New Zealand IWW and the Maori - Mark Derby 12. Patrick Hodgens Hickey and the IWW: A Transnational Relationship - Peter Clayworth 13. 'The Cause of the Workers Who Are Fighting in Spain is Yours': The Marine Transport Workers and the Spanish Civil War - Matthew White 14. Edith Frenette: A Transnational Radical Life - Heather Mayer Part III: Beyond the Union: The IWW’s Influence and Legacies 15. Jim Larkin, James Connolly and the Dublin Lockout of 1913: The Transnational Path of Global Syndicalism - Marjorie Murphy 16. Tom Barker and Revolutionary Europe - Paula de Angelis 17. P. J. Welinder and 'American Syndicalism' in Interwar Sweden - Johan Pries 18. 'All Workers Regardless Of Craft, Race Or Color': The First Wave of IWW Activity and Influence in South Africa - Lucien van der Walt 19. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp: The Songs of Joe Hill Around the World - Bucky Halker Notes on Contributors Index
£24.29
Louisiana State University Press Tapping the Pines
Book SynopsisThe extraction of raw turpentine and tar from the southern longleaf pine constitutes what was once the largest industry in North Carolina. This study weaves together business, environmental, labour, and social history to offer the first complete account of this little-understood sector of the southern economy.
£28.45
University of Pennsylvania Press Biotech
Book SynopsisThe seemingly unlimited reach of powerful biotechnologies and the attendant growth of the multibillion-dollar industry have raised difficult questions about the scientific discoveries, political assumptions, and cultural patterns that gave rise to for-profit biological research. Given such extraordinary stakes, a history of the commercial biotechnology industry must inquire far beyond the predictable attention to scientists, discovery, and corporate sales. It must pursue how something so complex as the biotechnology industry was born, poised to become both a vanguard for contemporary world capitalism and a focal point for polemic ethical debate.In Biotech, Eric J. Vettel chronicles the story behind genetic engineering, recombinant DNA, cloning, and stem-cell research. It is a story about the meteoric rise of government support for scientific research during the Cold War, about activists and student protesters in the Vietnam era pressing for a new purpose in science, aboTrade Review"Eric Vettel ably illuminates the political economy of science at the end of the 1960s, including the impact on attitudes among younger bioscientists of the demand for relevance in research; and he provides a riveting on-the-ground account of how in the Bay Area that response helped give birth to the region's biotechnology industry. This is a valuable book, deeply researched and altogether readable." * Daniel Kevles, Yale University *"The wide range of economic, social, cultural, and personal factors chronicled in the book-particularly the interaction between the institutional and personal-gives the reader a deep appreciation of the subtle and complex forces at work during this tumultuous period in U.S. history. . . . [Biotech] offers a provocative early look at an enterprise that is sure to receive much more scholarly analysis in the years to come." * American Historical Review *"Compelling, well-documented, and important. . . . [Biotech] helps us begin to see some of the complex questions that we will have to address in deciding how much and which basic research, applied science, and technological application we want." * BioScience *"This is one of those rare books. . . . What is passed over or hinted at in other histories is here explored in depth and with the skill that comes from a sympathetic familiarity with his subject and subjects. . . . The only history of the field I will keep and recommend." * Nature Biotechnology *
£21.59
UNIV OF ARIZONA PR Carbon Sovereignty
Book Synopsis
£24.71
University of Alabama Press Urbanism in the Preindustrial World Crosscultural Approaches
Book SynopsisA study revealing the variety of factors involved in the coalescing and dispersal of populations in pre-industrial times. It employs a subset of preindustrial cities on many continents to answer questions archaeologists grapple with, concerning the populating and growth of cities before industrialization.
£33.11
LUP - University of Georgia Press Sawdust in Your Pockets A History of the North
Book SynopsisProvides the first survey of North Carolina’s furniture industry from its cabinetmaking beginnings to its digital present. Historian Eric Medlin shows how the industry transitioned from high-quality, individual pieces to the affordable, mass-produced furniture, and discusses how competition, consolidation, and globalization challenged the industry.Trade ReviewSawdust in Your Pockets is a well-researched overview of an important component of North Carolina’s economic history, and it is the first such comprehensive study. This book fills an important gap in the historical literature, and I believe it will inspire future micro-studies of aspects of the state’s furniture industry." - Melissa Walker, author of Southern Farmers and Their Stories"I have been teaching North Carolina history for over twenty years, and it has always frustrated me that there is so little historical information on the state’s furniture industry out there. Furniture was one of the legs on North Carolina’s three-legged stool (along with tobacco and textiles) that made the state the most industrialized southern state and one of the most prosperous. There is both a need and a market for this book." - Dan Pierce, author of Tar Heel Lightnin': How Secret Stills and Fast Cars Made North Carolina the Moonshine Capital of the World
£35.72
University of Pittsburgh Press Pittsburgh and the Appalachians
Book SynopsisThe book assesses how Pittsburgh deindustrialization over the past decades has posed both opportunities and challenges for the city and surrounding tri-state area.
£52.14
University of Pittsburgh Press Big Steel
Book SynopsisBig Steel is the first comprehensive history of the company at the center of America's twentieth-century industrial life—the United States Steel Corporation. Granted unprecedented access to the U.S. Steel archives, Warren tells the compelling history of this business.Trade ReviewProfessor Warren brings forward a clear, well-argued and eminently fascinating account of the creation, growth, decline, and rebirth of US Steel, and does it in a way that I think will appeal not only to the academic experts, but will have a broad crossover appeal to general readers, and certainly to the large ‘business book’ market."" - John N. Ingham, University of Toronto""Warren brings forward a clear- well-argued and eminently fascinating account of the creation, growth and decline, and rebirth of U.S. Steel."" - Western Pa. Genealogical Society Quarterly
£46.55
University of Pittsburgh Press Brezhnevs Folly
Book SynopsisThe first scholarly account of BAM (the Baikal-Amur Railway), Russia's most ambitious public construction project to be attempted in the final decades leading up to the collapse of the USSR. This is a rich social history based on a combination of original scholarly research and interviews with many of those who worked on BAM.Trade Review“Ward’s excellent history charts the rise and fall of a vast and impractical construction project. . . . Imparts both meaning and insight to everyday life in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union. . . . Ward excels at peopling BAM’s construction sites with a fascinating cast of belligerent, disorganized workers who drink, steal, worry about the environment, . . . and dream of amassing capital rather than building socialism. . . . A fine, readable work on a neglected topic that offers insights not just into the construction of BAM, but into the larger realm of youth culture and work culture under Brezhnev.” —Technology and Culture“This excellent monograph details the construction of one of the largest public works projects of all time, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Railway. . . . The last instance of ‘Soviet gigantomania’ and a pet project of Leonid Brezhnev. . . BAM was envisioned as a demonstration of ideological fervor and Soviet prowess. . . . In fact, BAM was a disaster from start to finish. . . . Brezhnev’s Folly benefits from the author’s thorough familiarity with rich archival materials as well as personal interviews. . . . It deserves the attention of every specialist in modern Russian history.” —The Russian Review“Ward’s important study successfully situates BAM within Brezhnev’s ‘developed socialism,’ and it indicates the bankruptcy of late Soviet efforts to demonstrate the glories of enlightened rule. Important for specialists on Soviet politics and history, and more generally for historians of technology.” —Slavic Review“A fascinating case study of youth, gender, ethnicity, and an emergent ecological consciousness in Brezhnev's USSR. This book also focuses on the near farce of an out-of-touch effort by the Soviet state to have BAM's builders inhabit a visionary future while living in a squalid present. This disconnect between officialdom's happy propaganda and the brutal reality of everyday life on BAM validates Havel's insistence that late communism can be reduced to mendacity incarnate. An important work that should become a classic in the field.” —Matthew Payne, Emory University“An interesting and important analysis. . . Scholars and students will discover much with which to argue, but at the same time an accessible, unusual, and well-documented work of history.” —The Journal of Modern History
£42.63
CABI Publishing Organic Farming
Book SynopsisBeginning as a small protest to the industrialization of agriculture in the 1920s, organic farming has become a significant force in agricultural policy, marketing, and research. No longer dismissed as unscientific and counterproductive, organic techniques are now taken seriously by farmers, consumers, scientists, food processors, marketers, and regulatory agencies in much of the world. Organic farming is both dynamic and forward-looking but is also rooted in tradition. It is these traditions that can provide valuable starting points in debates over how organic farming should meet new challenges such as globalization, the emergence of new production techniques, and growing concern over equity and social justice in agriculture. Complementing general discussions with case histories of important organic institutions in various countries, this comprehensive discussion is the first to explore the development of organic agriculture. This title is now also available in papTable of ContentsPart 1: Origins and Principles Chapter 1: What Explains the Rise of Organic Farming? Chapter 2: The Origins of Organic Farming Chapter 3: Organic Values Chapter 4: The Science of Organic Farming Chapter 5: The Evolution of Organic Practice Part 2: Policies and Markets Chapter 6: The Development of Governmental Support for Organic Farming in Europe Chapter 7: The Organic Market Chapter 8: Development of Standards for Organic Farming Part 3: Organizations and Institutions Chapter 9: IFOAM and the History of the International Organic Movement Chapter 10: The Soil Association Chapter 11: Ecological Farmers Association and the Success of Swedish Organic Agriculture Chapter 12: MAPO and the Argentinian Organic Movement Chapter 13: NASAA and Organic Agriculture in Australia Chapter 14: FiBL and Organic Research in Switzerland Chapter 15: The Organic Trade Association Part 4: Challenges Chapter 16: A Look toward the Future Part 1: Origins and Principles Chapter 1: What Explains the Rise of Organic Farming? Chapter 2: The Origins of Organic Farming Chapter 3: Organic Values Chapter 4: The Science of Organic Farming Chapter 5: The Evolution of Organic Practice Part 2: Policies and Markets Chapter 6: The Development of Governmental Support for Organic Farming in Europe Chapter 7: The Organic Market Chapter 8: Development of Standards for Organic Farming Part 3: Organizations and Institutions Chapter 9: IFOAM and the History of the International Organic Movement Chapter 10: The Soil Association Chapter 11: Ecological Farmers Association and the Success of Swedish Organic Agriculture Chapter 12: MAPO and the Argentinian Organic Movement Chapter 13: NASAA and Organic Agriculture in Australia Chapter 14: FiBL and Organic Research in Switzerland Chapter 15: The Organic Trade Association Part 4: Challenges Chapter 16: A Look toward the Future
£103.82
MP-OSU Oregon State Universi From Backwoods to Boardrooms The Rise of
Book SynopsisIn the past 100-plus years, forestland ownerships have gone through two structural changes: the accumulation of industrial timberlands between 1900s and 1980s and the transformation of industrial timberlands to institutional ownerships afterwards. This book is about the history and economics of these two structural changes.
£33.71
MP-OSU Oregon State Universi Cheese War Conflict and Courage in Tillamook
Book SynopsisThe authors of this book have conducted years of research through the archives and newspapers of Tillamook County and conducted numerous interviews and oral histories of key players in the Cheese War and their families. This book tells the story of the very human factors behind one of Oregon’s most famous brands.
£999.99
Cornell University Press Native Soil
Book SynopsisLocated in a region geologically blessed with nutrient-rich black soil, DeKalb County is known for it's agricultural prosperity. This book explains how a group of farmers attempted to cope with the problems they faced as productive farming required scientific and technological advances. It is for those concerned with America's agricultural past.Trade ReviewMeticulously researched, lavishly illustrated and exceptionally well written. * Agricultural History Review *Refreshing... meticulousy researched and written in a way that allows the reader to watch the story unfold with a sense of immediacy. Native Soil is an important contribution to the history of both the Midwest and American agriculture. * Journal of illinois history *Not to take the opportunity to read Eric Mogren's Native Soil is to make a significant error, particularly for agricultural historians, historians of the Midwest, and even generalist scholars of the American experience. * THe annals of iowa *Table of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction 1 A New Era: The Roots of the Farm Bureau Movement 2 The "Soil Improvers" 3 War and Recession: Early Trials for the Soil Improvement Association 4 Hard Times: The Farm Bureau during Depression and War 5 Postwar Years: The Farm Bureau at High Tide 6 The Future Appendix: Former DeKalb County Farm Bureau Officials Notes Bibliography Index
£20.89