Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism

by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.

Scale and Scope is Alfred Chandler’s first major work since his Pulitzer Prize–winning The Visible Hand . Representing ten years of research into the history of the managerial business system, this book concentrates on patterns of growth and competitiveness in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, tracing the evolution of large firms into multinational giants and orienting the late twentieth century’s most important developments.

This edition includes the entire hardcover edition with the exception of the Appendix Tables.

Genres: Economics, History, Business, Nonfiction, Management

780 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Alfred DuPont Chandler, Jr. was a professor of business history at Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins University. Called "the Herodotus of business history," he wrote extensively about the scale and the management structures of modern corporations. His works redefined business and economic history of industrialization.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading a historical fiction novel about the patent war between Edison and Westinghouse (The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore) and it made me think of this book from one of my favorite classes in my undergrad. This book is dense and daunting but I got more out of it this time around than I did as a college kid. Not exactly light reading, but the economic principals are presented in an easily digestible way and I enjoyed the corporate histories that were discussed.

[Mirza Sultan-Galiev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looks at the transition from "personal" to "organized" ( or for us commies "imperialist monopoly") capitalism through the prism of the 200 largest enterprises in the UK,US and Germany between 1880 and 1930.
A little boring but quite informative.
Also shows how the British refusal to move from personal "gentlemen's" capitalism to bureaucratic monopoly structures helped speed up the time when the sun set on the Union Jack.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scale and Scope subjects the reader to a rather repetitive grind through industrial histories. For my purposes (corporate governance), this approach was exhausting and compares unfavorably to The Visible Hand, which better developed fewer examples. Moreover, Chandler gives sparse attention to the rise and sharp fall of conglomerates in the 1960s and 1970s. Because these inefficient structures have been viewed as the epitome of managerial capitalism, such an omission is striking.

[Chris]

actually i didn't read the whole thing...it's a heavy tome. but skimmed it, and took some valuable lessons away with me.

[Kontribute · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderfull reading - the structure of the book is a slurpee for the understanding of the succes and terror of Western civilization as we know it.

[Preston Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read only parts. A real tome.

[Maurice Halton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just another American's slanted views.

[Lloyd Fassett]

4/4/18 found it through the book Behemoth. It's refferenced when talking about modern factories being larger than is economically rationale.