Industrial Constructions
The Sources of German Industrial Power

Herrigel challenges the Chandlerian, Gerschenkronian, and Schumpetarian approaches to Germany's economic history.

Gary Herrigel (Author)

9780521462730, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 November 1995

484 pages, 5 maps 14 tables
23 x 15.3 x 3 cm, 0.87 kg

"Herrigel's analysis is at once informative....Herrigel has written a remarkably good book. He explicitly disavows any intention of presenting a general theory of German industrialization, and he does not present himself as an economist." K. Austin Kerr, H-Net Reviews

This book is about the way in which industrial production in Germany is conditioned by social and political factors. Herrigel emphasizes regional, organizational, and policy dimensions of the development of German industry from the seventeenth century to the present. The argument is distinctive because it pays so much attention to small and medium-sized firms, and because it suggests that Germany does not have a single coherent national system of industrial governance. This social constructivist point of view presents a direct challenge to the Gerschenkronian, Schumpetarian, and Chandlerian approaches to Germany's economic history.

1. Introduction: problems with the German model
2. Blending in: decentralized industrialization in Germany
3. Repositioning organized capitalism into regions: autarkic industrial order in Germany
4. The national context: 1871–1945
5. Return to regions: the development of the decentralized industrial order since 1945
6. Autarkic industrial order: 1945–1994
7. The national context: 1945–1994
Notes
List of interviewees
Bibliography
Appendix: Maps.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]