Americanization and Its Limits: Reworking US Technology and Management in Post-war Europe and Japan

by Jonathan Zeitlin, Gary Herrigel

Overview

This book develops a new and conceptually distinctive analysis of Americanization in European and Japanese industry after the Second World War, based on a rich set of sectoral and firm-based studies by an international group of distinguished scholars. The authors highlight the autonomous and creative role of local actors in selectively adapting US technology and management methods to suit local conditions and, strikingly, in creating new hybrid forms that combined indigenous and foreign practices in unforeseen and often remarkably competitive ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198295556
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2000
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.52(h) x 1.14(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Zeitlin is Professor of History, Sociology, and Industrial Relations, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; and Jean Monnet Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy.

Gary Herrigel is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, USA.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: Americanization and Its Limits: Reworking US Technology and Management in Post-War Europe and Japan, Jonathan ZeitlinPart I: Exporting the American Model?Chapter 2: Americanization: Ideology or Process? The Case of the US Technical Assistance and Productivity Program, Jacqueline McGladeChapter 3: Transplanting the American Model? US Automobile Companies and the Transfer of Technology and Management to Europe after the Second World War, Steven TollidayPart II: Reworking US Technology and Management: National, Sectoral, and Firm-Level VariationsA: Britain and SwedenChapter 4: Americanizing British Engineering? Strategic Debate, Selective Adaptation, and Hybrid Innovation in Post-War Reconstruction, Jonathan ZeitlinChapter 5: Failure to Communicate: British Telecommunications and the American Lesson, Kenneth LipartitoChapter 6: Creative Cross-Fertilization and Uneven Americanization of Swedish Industry: Sources of Innovation in Post-War Motor Vehicles and Electrical Manufacturing, Henrik GlimstedtB: France and ItalyChapter 7: A Slow and Difficult Process: The Americanization of the French Steel Producing and Using Industries after World War II, Matthias KippingChapter 8: Remodelling the Italian Steel Industry: Americanization, Modernization, and Mass Production, Ruggero RanieriChapter 9: Mass Production or 'Organized Craftsmanship'? The Post-War Italian Automobile Industry, Duccio BigazziC: Germany and JapanChapter 10: The Long Shadow of Americanization: The German Rubber Industry and the Radial Tire Revolution, Paul ErkerChapter 11: The Evolution of the 'Japanese Production System': Indigenous Influences and American Impact, Kazuo Wada and Takao ShibaChapter 12: American Occupation, Market Order, and Democracy: Reconfiguring the Japanese and German Steel Industries after World War II, Gary Herrigel