Global Electrification
Global Electrification
Peter Hertner, Martin Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenburg, Germany
Mira Wilkins, Florida International University
£44.00
GBPThis book examines how multinational enterprises and international finance influenced the course of electrification around the world. Multinational enterprises played a crucial role in the spread of electric light and power from the 1870s through the first three decades of the twentieth century. However, their role did not persist, and by 1978 multinational enterprises in this sector had all but disappeared, replaced by electrical utility providers with national business structures. Yet, in recent years, there has been a vigorous revival. This book, a co-operative effort by the three authors and a group of experts from many countries, offers an analysis of the history of multinational enterprise. The authors take an integrated approach, not simply comparing national electrification experiences, but supplying a truly global account.
- Contributes to the popular field of global history
- People often take electricity for granted; this book shows how it spread and how key multinationals were to that process
- Adds to scholarship on multinational enterprise and international finance
Reviews & endorsements
Review of the hardback: 'This is a definitive study which will long be valued by business, financial and technological historians and, it is to be hoped, will also inspire new perspectives in such related fields.' Financial History Review
'The novelties of multinational finance that accompanied - and made possible - the electrification process throughout the world constitute the focus of this ambitious book … this book enriches the understanding of how electric-power systems evolved …' The Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Product details
June 2011Paperback
9780521299008
512 pages
229 × 152 × 29 mm
0.74kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Part I. Concepts:
- 1. Invention and spread of electrical utilities with a measure of the extent of foreign ownership
- 2. Multinational enterprise and international finance
- Part II. Changes:
- 3. Every city, 1880–1914
- 4. War, the first nationalization, restructuring, and renewal, 1914–29
- 5. Basic infrastructure, 1929–45
- Part III. Conclusions:
- 6. Summary of the domestication pattern to 1978
- 7. Coming full circle, 1978–2007, and a global perspective.
