Research on the political history and research on the business history of twentieth-century Europe frequently run in parallel, without making the important connections between them. A major example in business history has been the neglect, in Alfred D. Chandler's Visible Hand and Scale and Scope paradigms, of the role of government in corporate development. In a great deal of historical work, accounts of corporate decision-making largely ignore the political process and, equally, in much political history it appears as if politicians shape economic and industrial policy in something of a vacuum. Of course, there is also a counter-tradition, a less abundant but growing literature that seeks to reveal the complex interactions between political institutions and economic institutions. Over the last forty years, indeed, in the academic lifetime of Alice Teichova, whom we honour in this volume, determined efforts have been made to explore the appropriate linkages, even if the results so far have been patchy and incomplete. As early as 1957, for example, Henry Ehrmann explored the role of organised business in France, focusing on the activities of employers' associations, and raising the question of the attitudes of business to the Vichy government. In 1974 both Arthur Knight and Neville Abraham juxtaposed private enterprise and public intervention, with Knight referring to the experiences of the textile giant Courtaulds over the period 1962–70. In the same year, Alice Teichova herself revealed the economic and business considerations underpinning the political ‘settlement’ at Munich in 1938.

I should like to thank all those who so generously helped me to prepare this volume in honour of Alice Teichova, and in particular the many colleagues and friends who contributed to and supported ‘AT80’, the appreciation symposium organised by the Business History Unit and held at the London School of Economics in September 2000. The support of sponsors was itself a tribute to Alice's international reputation. I should like to thank the Austrian Embassy in London, the British Academy, ING-Barings and the European Association for Banking History for their assistance. A number of people worked behind the scenes to ensure that the event, and its aftermath, the preparation of a volume for publication, were a success. I owe a particular debt to Alice's husband, Mikuláš, who encouraged and supported me at all stages. Sonia Copeland organised the symposium with characteristic warmth and efficiency, and Francis Goodall offered me his considerable skills in copy-editing and proof-reading. Last, but certainly not least, Bill Davies at Cambridge University Press tried to keep the project and its editor on a steady course. Responsibility for the final product, is, of course, mine.

The academic career of Alice Teichova, celebrated in this volume, has been both eclectic and yet systematic. Her historical writings have progressed logically in seamless vein from the dynamics of international capitalism and cartel-building to the impact of multi-national enterprise, the significance of universal banking, and issues of economic integration and nationality.

Books

1. Kapitoly z dějin evropského feudalismu (Chapters on the history of European feudalism) (Prague, 1954).

2. Prameny ze středověkých dějin západní Evropy (Sources on the medieval history of Western Europe) (Prague, 1961).

3. Dějiny středověku (History of the Middle Ages), 2 vols. (Prague, 1968). Editor and author of chapters from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries in vol. II.

4. An Economic Background to Munich: International Business and Czechoslovakia 1918–1938 (Cambridge, 1974).

5. ed. with Philip L. Cottrell, International Business and Central Europe 1918–1939 (Leicester and New York, 1983). Author of introduction and chapters 2 and 5.

6. ed. with Maurice Lévy-Leboyer and Helga Nussbaum, Multinational Enterprise in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, 1986). Author of introduction and chapter 25. Several reprints: Spanish (Madrid, 1991); Japanese (Tokyo, 1991).

7. The Czechoslovak Economy 1918–1980 (London and New York, 1988).

8. Kleinstaaten im Spannungsfeld der Großmächte Wirtschaft und Politik in Mittel- und Südosteuropa in der Zwischenkriegszeit (Munich, 1988).

9. Die Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Tschechoslowakei 1918–1980 (Vienna, Cologne and Graz, 1988).

10. ed. with Maurice Lévy-Leboyer and Helga Nussbaum, Historical Studies in International Corporate Business (Cambridge, 1989). Several reprints: paperback (2002); Spanish (Madrid, 1991); Japanese (Tokyo, 1991).

11. ed. with Håkan Lindgren and Margarita Dritsas, L'entreprise en Grèce et en Europe ⅪXe–XXe siècles (Athens, 1991). Author of chapter 4.

12. ed. with Harold James and Håkan Lindgren, The Role of Banks in the Interwar Economy (Cambridge, 1991). Paperback (2002). Author with Alois Mosser of chapter 9.

13. ed. with Philip L. Cottrell and Håkan Lindgren, European Industry and Banking between the Wars. A Review of Bank–Industry Relations (Leicester and New York, 1992). Author of chapter 2.

14. Mezinárodní kapitál a Československo v letech 1918–1938 (International capital and Czechoslovakia) (Prague, 1994).

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