Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF TABLES
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY
- II SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THE STEEL MANUFACTURERS
- III CAREERS OF THE STEEL MANUFACTURERS
- IV SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THE NOTTINGHAM HOSIERS
- V CAREERS OF THE HOSIERY MANUFACTURERS
- VI THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW TECHNIQUES IN STEEL-MAKING
- VII HOSIERY INNOVATORS
- VIII THE PUBLIC COMPANY
- Appendix A Selection of firms
- Appendix B List of firms included in steel study
- Appendix C Selection of men for steel study
- Appendix D The hosiery samples
- Appendix E Classification of fathers' occupations
- Appendix F Notes on comparisons with Population Census
- Appendix G Education
- Appendix H Marriages
- Appendix I Careers
- Appendix J Public company tables
- List of Principal Works Cited
- Index of names
- Index of companies
- General index
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF TABLES
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY
- II SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THE STEEL MANUFACTURERS
- III CAREERS OF THE STEEL MANUFACTURERS
- IV SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THE NOTTINGHAM HOSIERS
- V CAREERS OF THE HOSIERY MANUFACTURERS
- VI THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW TECHNIQUES IN STEEL-MAKING
- VII HOSIERY INNOVATORS
- VIII THE PUBLIC COMPANY
- Appendix A Selection of firms
- Appendix B List of firms included in steel study
- Appendix C Selection of men for steel study
- Appendix D The hosiery samples
- Appendix E Classification of fathers' occupations
- Appendix F Notes on comparisons with Population Census
- Appendix G Education
- Appendix H Marriages
- Appendix I Careers
- Appendix J Public company tables
- List of Principal Works Cited
- Index of names
- Index of companies
- General index
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH
Summary
In recent years there has been a revival of interest on both sides of the Atlantic in the men who control private business. The businessman has always been a somewhat more interesting figure to the popular mind in the United States than he has in Britain. The prestige of the businessman in the United States undoubtedly fell during the first third of the twentieth century as middle-class progressives labelled successful ones ‘robber barons’, as the novelists of the 'twenties etched out the Babbitt type, and the Great Depression shook popular faith in their former heroes. During the past fifteen years academic interest in the businessman has soared. The careers of historical figures are being reassessed, particularly in the light of Joseph Schumpeter's emphasis upon the individual ‘innovator’ who was said to have been able to influence the course of economic development. Other writers are filling in the details of what the executive in a large modern corporation ought to be, as well as what he is. Surveys of the social origins and careers of business executives have found their way into Fortune magazine and the more popular Life, to mention but two examples.
Perhaps revival is not the right word to use in connexion with Great Britain, for there the myths about industrial giants have never become part of popular tradition as they did in America.
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- Chapter
- Information
- British IndustrialistsSteel and Hosiery 1850–1950, pp. xiii - xxiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1959