Endless Novelty: Specialty Production and American Industrialization, 1865-1925

by Philip Scranton

Book Overview

Flexibility, specialization, and niche marketing are buzzwords in the business literature these days, yet few realize that it was these elements that helped the United States first emerge as a global manufacturing leader between the Civil War and World War I. The huge mass production-based businesses--steel, oil, and autos--have long been given sole credit for this emergence. In Endless Novelty, Philip Scranton boldly recasts the history...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691070180
• ISBN13: 9780691070186
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Economically Exciting

I read this book several months ago for a critical essay assignment for one of my college econ. classes. Normally when I read books for reports, essays, or for anything other than entertainment, I find them to be painfully boring and longwinded. This book, however, was a pleasant surprise. The book details several companies in the Midwest and uses them to demonstrate the evolution of the American company. Scranton does an excellent job of giving examples of one or two companies in similar situations and then showing how different decisions led to good or bad results. The book seems to have emphasize the success or failure of compainies/entrepreneurs because of their own actions, as the book doesn't include much about the Civil War or major contracts. It was very easy to complete my assignment with this book, and I think it would even make for good recreational reading material.