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Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions. Edited by Thomas K. McCraw. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. xii + 711 pp. Illustrations, maps, figures, tables, notes, index. Cloth, $65.00; paper, $35.00. ISBN: cloth, 0-674-17555-7; paper, 0-674-17556-5.
Reviewed by Mansel G. Blackford
This casebook has been an ideal source of readings for the students in my class in comparative (or international) business history at The Ohio State University. Covering business and economic developments in Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and Japan, Creating Modern Capitalism contains two types of cases. For each of the four nations, there is a national case that provides a brief history of the evolution of the country's economy and business system. In addition, there are two cases examining the development of business firms in each nation: Wedgwood and Rolls-Royce in Great Britain; Thyssen and the Deutsche Bank in Germany; Ford and General Motors (one case) and IBM in the United States; and Toyota and 7-Eleven in Japan. Useful appendices provide international business and economic statistics.
Creating Modern Capitalism thus combines general economic overviews with specific business studies. Chosen to show how businesses in the world's most dynamic capitalistic economies have developed from the 1700s, the cases illustrate the varieties of capitalism that have...