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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
Once upon his discussiona time, oraroundso it seems, outstandingthe historiographerworks by leading could professors. Perhaps in some fields of scholarship the time still lingers, but not in recent American economic history. A quick glance at studies applying to the twentieth century that have appeared since World War II shows a large array of books that vary in merit but include few outstanding works. Furthermore, the majority of both the more or less important books have been written by people who, to the best of my knowledge, would not call themselves economic historians.
1 The Bureau's last annual report, Investing in Economic Knowledge (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1958)Google Scholar, lists many of its publications since its organization in 1920.
2 Dewhurst, Frederic J. & Associates, America's Needs and Resources: A New Survey (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1955)Google Scholar, is an outstanding example of a major publication of the latter group. A brief, illustrated, and popular summary of this work is Carskadon, Thomas R. and Soule, George, U.S.A. in New Dimensions (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1957)Google Scholar.
3 Moore, Wilbert E., Industrialization and Labor: Social Aspects of Economic Development (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Rostow, W. W., The Process of Economic Growth (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1952)Google Scholar; Bendix, Reinhard, Work, and Authority in Industry: Ideologies of Management in the Course of Industrialization (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1956)Google Scholar.
4 Kuznets, Simon, National Product Since 1869 (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946)Google Scholar; Kuznets, Simon, National Income: A Summary of Findings (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946)Google Scholar; Shaw, William H., Value of Commodity Output Since 1869 (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1947)Google Scholar; Goldsmith, Raymond W., A Study of Saving (2 vols.; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955)Google Scholar, and Vol. Ill with D. S. Brady and Horst Mendershausen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956).
5 Lee, Everett S., Miller, Ann Ratner, Brainerd, Carol P., and Easterlin, Richard A., Population Redistribution and Economic Growth, United States, 1870–1950 Vol. I, Methodological Considerations and Reference Tables, prepared under the direction of Simon Kuznets and Dorothy Swaine Thomas (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1957)Google Scholar. Hutchinson, E. P., Immigrants and Their Children, 1850–1950 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1956)Google Scholar; Higham, John, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1825 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1955)Google Scholar; Thomas, Brinley, Migration and Economic Growth: A Study of Great Britain and the Atlantic Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1954)Google Scholar; Berthoff, Rowland T., British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790-1950 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953)Google Scholar; Handlin, Oscar, The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations that Made the American People (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1951)Google Scholar.
7 Alexandersson, Gunnar, The Industrial Structure of American Cities: A Geographic Study of Urban Economy in the United States (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1956)Google Scholar.
8 See Taussig, F. W. and Joslyn, C. S., American Business Leaders (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1932)Google Scholar; Warner, W. Lloyd and Abegglen, James C., Occupational Mobility in American Business and Industry, 1928-1952 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955)Google Scholar; Miller, William, “American Historians and the Business Elite,” The Journal of Economic History, IX (11 1949), 184–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mills, C. Wright, White Collar, The American Middle Classes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951)Google Scholar and The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956)Google Scholar; and Newcomer, Mabel, The Big Business Executive, the Factors that Made Him, 1900-1950 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955)Google Scholar.
9 Clark, Victor S., History of Manufactures in the United States (3 vols.; New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1929)Google Scholar.
10 Glover, John George and Cornell, William B., eds., The Development of American Industries (3d ed.; New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1951)Google Scholar.
11 Lane, Frederic C., Ships for Victory: A History of Shipbuilding Under the U.S. Maritime Commission in World War II (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Mac-laurin, W. Rupert, Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1949)Google Scholar; Bright, Arthur A. Jr, The Electric-Lamp Industry: Technological Change and Economic Development from 1800 to 1947 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1949)Google Scholar; Rister, Carl Coke, Oil Titan of the Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949)Google Scholar; Haynes, William, American Chemical Industry, The World War Period: 1912–1922, vols. II, III (New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1945)Google Scholar. Hidy, Ralph W., “Some Implications on the Recent Literature on the History of the Petroleum Industry: A Review Article,” Business History Review, XXX (09 1956), 329–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar lists and appraises some forty books and articles.
12 Schroeder, Gertrude G., The Growth of Major Steel Companies, 1900–1950 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1953)Google Scholar; Vatter, Harold G., Small Enterprise and Oligopoly: A Study of Butter, Flour, Automobile, and Glass Container Industries (Corvallis: Oregon State College Press, 1955)Google Scholar; Fisher, Waldo E. and James, Charles M., Minimum Price Fixing in the Bituminous Coal Industry (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955)Google Scholar.
13 McDonald, Forrest, Let There Be Light: The Electric Utility Industry in Wisconsin, 1881-1955 (Madison: American History Research Center, 1957)Google Scholar; Burns, Arthur R. and Caine, Walter E., Electric Power and Government Policy (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1948)Google Scholar.
14 Halcrow, Harold G., Agricultural Policy of the United States (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1953)Google Scholar; Benedict, Murray R., Farm Policies of the United States, 1790-1950: A Study of Their Origins and Development (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1953)Google Scholar.
15 Dana, Samuel T., Forest and Range Policy: Its Development in the United States (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1956)Google Scholar; Peffer, E. Louise, The Closing of the Public Domain: Disposal and Reservation Policies, 1900-1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Gold, Bela, Wartime Economic Planning in Agriculture: A Study in the Allocation of Resources (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949)Google Scholar; Kile, Orville M., The Farm Bureau Through Three Decades (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1948)Google Scholar; Greene, Lee S., Virginia Holmes Brown, and Evan A. Iverson, Rescued Earth: A Study of the Public Administration of Natural Resources in Tennessee (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1948)Google Scholar; Wilcox, Walter W., The Farmer in the Second World War (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Harding, T. Swann, Two Blades of Grass: A History of Scientific Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Schultz, Theodore W., Agriculture in an Unstable Economy (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1945)Google Scholar; Benedict, Murray R., Can We Solve the Farm Problem? An Analysis of Federal Aid to Agriculture (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1955)Google Scholar; Benedict, Murray R. and Stine, Oscar C., The Agricultural Commodity Programs: Two Decades of Experience (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1956)Google Scholar; and Haystead, Ladd and Fite, Gilbert C., The Agricultural Regions of the United States (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955)Google Scholar.
16 Saloutos, Theodore and Hicks, John D., Agricultural Discontent in the Middle West, 1900–1939 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shannon, Fred A., American Farmers' Movements (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1957)Google Scholar.
17 Black, John D., The Rural Economy of New England, A Regional Study (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950)Google Scholar.
19 Malin, James C., The Grassland of North America: Prolegomena to Us History (Printed by the author, 1541 University Drive, Lawrence, Kan., 1947)Google Scholar.
19 Fulmer, John Leonard, Agricultural Progress in the Cotton Belt Since 1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1950)Google Scholar; Street, James H., The New Revolution in the Cotton Economy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957)Google Scholar.
20 Ciriacy-Wantrup, S. V., Major Economic Forces Affecting Agriculture with Particular Reference to California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1947)Google Scholar; A Century of Farming in Iowa, 1846-1946, by members of the staff of the Iowa State College and the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1946)Google Scholar.
21 Howe, Irving and Widick, B. J., The U.A.W. and Walter Reuther (New York: Random House, 1949)Google Scholar; Seybold, John W., The Philadelphia Printing Industry: A Case Study (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McGinley, James J., Labor Relations in the New York. Rapid Transit Systems, 1904–1944 (New York: King's Crown Press, 1949)Google Scholar; Schweppe, Emma, The Firemen's and Patrolmen's Unions in the City of New York.: A Case Study in Public Employee Unions (New York: King's Crown Press, 1948)Google Scholar; Jensen, Vernon H., Lumber and Labor (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1945)Google Scholar and Heritage of Conflict: Labor Relations in the Nonferrous Metals Industry up to 1930 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1950)Google Scholar; Corey, Lewis, Meat and Man: A Study of Monopoly, Unionism and Food Policy (New York: Viking Press, 1949)Google Scholar; Braun, Kurt, Union-Management Co-operation: Experience in the Clothing Industry (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1947)Google Scholar; Brazeal, Brailsford R., The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: Its Origin and Development (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945)Google Scholar; Christie, Robert A., Empire in Wood: A History of the Carpenters' Union (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1956)Google Scholar; Nelson, James, The Mine Workers' District 50: The Story of the Gas, Coke and Chemical Unions of Massachusetts and Their Growth into a National Union (New York: Exposition Press, 1955)Google Scholar; Josephson, Matthew, Sidney Hillman: Statesman of American Labor (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1952)Google Scholar; Gorter, Wytze and Hildebrand, George H., The Pacific Coast Maritime Shipping Industry, 1932–1948, Vol. II, An Analysis of Performance (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1954)Google Scholar.
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24 Reynolds, Lloyd G. and Killingsworth, Charles C., Trade Union Publications (3 vols.; Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1945)Google Scholar.
25 See Creamer, Daniel, with the assistance of Martin Bernstein, Behavior of Wage Rates During Business Cycles (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1950)Google Scholar; , Dunlop and , Hill, The Wage Adjustment Board; Daniel J. Ahearn, Jr., The Wages of Farm and Factory Laborers, 1914-1924 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1945)Google Scholar; Layer, Robert G., Earnings of Cotton Mill Operatives, 1825-1914 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955)Google Scholar.
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27 McKelvey, Jean Trepp, AFL Attitudes Toward Production, 1900-1932 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1952)Google Scholar; Nadworny, Milton J., Scientific Management and the Unions. 1900-1932 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955)Google Scholar.
28 Grebler, Leo, Blank, David M., and Winnick, Louis, Capital Formation in Residential Real Estate (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956)Google Scholar.
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35 Handler, Milton, Antitrust in Perspective (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957)Google Scholar; Whitney, Simon Newcomb, Antitrust Policies: American Experience in Twenty Industries (2 vols.; New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1958)Google Scholar.
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