Description
Book SynopsisHer interdisciplinary study draws from the fields of business history, engineering, technology, architecture, and theories of modernity. Why did some people want to rationalize the factory, she asks, and how did the system impact those who worked under it?
Trade ReviewTraditional business history at its best, essential reading for anyone interested in the history of efficiency, technology, and work in the United States. -- William Roy Journal of American History Enhances our understanding of the shift away from a more romantic nineteenth-century artisanal world to the rational, machine- and factory-based, mass production of the twentieth century. Science, Technology, and Society This interdisciplinary study aptly illustrates how buildings are much more than silent historical witnesses; they are in fact central, active components within the process of social change. Michigan Historical Review An important addition to the literature of industrial development. -- Paul Israel American Historical Review The Rational Factory is a substantial contribution to the history of industrial engineering and industrial architecture in the 19th and 20th centuries. -- Charles K. Hyde Industrial Archeology
