Power, Profits, and Patriarchy: The Social Organization of Work at a British Metal Trades Firm, 1791-1922

Founded in 1791 and in existence for more than two hundred years, the Kenrick iron foundry of West Bromwich, England produced some of the finest cast-iron hardware ever made. William and Clifford Staples' goal in studying the Kenrick case is to examine how taken-for-granted assumptions about class, gender, and familial relations contributed to the longevity of the firm. The authors' investigation uncovers three distinct political regimes of production that they characterize as successive fo...