Business History Review

During World War II, the organization Training Within Industry (TWI) developed programs to help industry cope with the flood of new and unskilled war workers.Guided by representatives of the new profession of personnel management and assisted by university-based social scientists, the organization developed innovative methods of industrial training that drew on both the scientific management tradition and the newer human relations approach fostered by the Hawthorne experiments.The introduction of the human relations approach was severely criticized in the postwar era for its manipulative potential, but the wartime training program on which it was based did not exhibit that tendency.Moreover, management, which theoretically should have embraced TWI programs, was unsupportive, and organized labor, which had reason to be suspicious, was very responsive. Workplace reform, not the psychological conditioning of workers, drove the TWI programs. (Pages 233-266)

The increase in volume of explosives and other hazardous materials transported by rail during the nineteenth century resulted in a growing number of accidents. In response, the Pennsylvania Railroad developed some of the first regulations governing the transport of such materials. In the twentieth century, a combination of enforcement difficulties and competitive pressures led the company, working through the American Railway Association, to press for industry-wide rules and enforcement, which resulted in the Association’s Bureau of Explosives.Similar motives impelled the carriers to seek federal regulation, which began in 1908. The Interstate Commerce Commission provided the legal authority in this public–private partnership, while the bureau took the lead in inspecting shipments, encouraging improvements in shipping techniques, and developing rules that formed the basis of all modern regulations of hazardous shipments. (Pages 267-298)

Two British land companies, the Canada Company and the British American Land Company (BALC), were active during the nineteenth century in settling what are now Ontario and the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Both purchased large tracts of land from the British government, with two goals: to provide funds for the governors of Canada and to relieve Britain of its surplus population. The Canada Company worked closely with the government to meet these objectives, whereas BALC indulged in land speculation and made immigration a secondary priority. One was successful, and the other struggled throughout its existence. Their success or failure was the direct result of how well they dealt with both the changing economic climate and the British and Canadian political situation. (Pages 299-335)

Recasting American Liberty: Gender, Race, Law, and the Railroad Revolution, 1865-1920. By Barbara Young Welke. Reviewed by William G. Thomas.

Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century. By Robert J. Steinfeld. Reviewed by William A. Sundstrom.

The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought. By Paul V. Murphy. Reviewed by Sheldon Hackney.

Antitrust and the Formation of the Postwar World. By Wyatt Wells. Reviewed by Tony A. Freyer.

Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan. By Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave and John Cullen. Reviewed by Ryan J. Carey.

The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance. By Dan Rottenberg. Reviewed by Martin Horn.

More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. By Thomas E. Bonsall. Reviewed by Donald T. Critchlow.

Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate. By Neil Baldwin. Reviewed by Leonard Dinnerstein.

The Early Modern Atlantic Economy. Edited by John J. McCusker and Kenneth Morgan. Reviewed by Christian J. Koot.

The Invention of Comfort: Sensibilities and Design in Early Modern Britain and Early America. By John E. Crowley. Reviewed by Richard Lyman Bushman

Rip Van Winkle's Neighbors: The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley, 1720-1850. By Thomas S. Wermuth. Reviewed by Thomas J. Humphrey

Northern Naval Superiority and the Economics of the American Civil War. By David G. Surdam. Reviewed by Heather Cox Richardson

The Model Man: A Life of Edward William Bok, 1863-1930. By Hans Krabbendam. Reviewed by Jennifer Scanlon

The Diplomacy of Involvement: American Economic Expansion Across the Pacific, 1784-1900. By David M. Pletcher. Reviewed by Jeffrey J. Matthews

Labor in Retreat: Class and Community among Men's Clothing Workers of Chicago, 1871-1929. By Youngsoo Bae. Reviewed by Jo Ann E. Argersinger

A Union Against Unions: The Minneapolis Citizens Alliance and Its Fight Against Organized Labor, 1903-1947. By William Millikan. Reviewed by Colin J. Davisr

Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900-1930. By Amy E. Slaton. Reviewed by Richard Rodger

Big Steel: The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901-2001. By Kenneth Warren. Reviewed by James D. Rose

Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture, and Family Ritual. By Elizabeth H. Pleck. Reviewed by Hasia R. Diner

Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, and Culture in Modern America. Edited by Philip Scranton. Reviewed by Janet S. Rose

Brush with Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning. By Christian Warren. Reviewed by Hugh S. Gorman

Saving International Capitalism During the Early Truman Presidency: The National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Problems. By Kevin M. Casey. Reviewed by Melvyn P. Leffler

Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy. By Dean Kotlowski. Reviewed by Jonathan J. Bean

The Business of America. By John Steele Gordon. Reviewed by K. Austin Kerr

La moneda en México, 1750-1920 [Currency in Mexico, 1750-1920]. Edited by Bátiz Vázquez, José Antonio, and José Enrique Covarrubias. Reviewed by David J. Weiland III.

Labors Appropriate to their Sex: Gender, Labor, and Politics in Urban Chile, 1900-1930. By Elizabeth Quay Hutchison. Reviewed by J. Pablo Silva

The Development of Agrarian Capitalism: Land and Labour in Norfolk, 1440-1580. By Jane Whittle. Reviewed by L. R. Poos

The Politics of Trade: The Overseas Merchants in State and Society, 1660-1720. By Perry Gauci. Reviewed by Gordon Jackson

Well Suited: A History of the Leeds Clothing Industry, 1850-1990. By Katrina Honeyman. Reviewed by Michael Zakim

Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791. By Clare Haru Crowston. Reviewed by Cissie Fairchilds

A Taste for Comfort and Status: A Bourgeois Family in Eighteenth-Century France. By Christine Adams. Reviewed by Suzanne R. Pucci

Créateurs et créations d'entreprises de la Révolution industrielle à nos jours [Entrepreneurs and the creation of enterprises from the Industrial Revolution to the present]. Edited by Jacques Marseille. Reviewed by Leonard N. Rosenband

"La Chasse à l'hectolitre": La Brasserie Müller à Neuchâtel, 1885-1953. [The Hectoliter Hunt: The Müller Brewery at Neuchâtel, 1885-1953]. By Hélène Pasquier. Reviewed by Rebecca Spang

Bimetallism: An Economic and Historical Analysis. By Angela Redish. Reviewed by Susan Howson

West German Industry and the Challenge of the Nazi Past, 1945-1955. By S. Jonathan Wiesen. Reviewed by Jonathan Steinberg

¡Es un motor español! Historia empresarial de Barreiros [It's a Spanish car! An entrepreneurial history of Barreiros]. By J. L. García Ruíz and M. Santos Redondo. Reviewed by S. Estapé-Triay

The Transition to a Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720-1800. By Prasannan Parthasarathi. Reviewed by Kenneth R. Hall