American Technology and the British Motor Vehicle Industry by Wayne Lewchuk

Abstract

168 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE obtrusive, and they do not invalidate the study. In particular, the thesis giving form to the book is a challenging one that may have a great deal of validity, however much one may argue about the details. George H. Daniels Dr. Daniels is chairman of the Department of History at the University of South Alabama. American Technology and the British Motor Vehicle Industry. By Wayne Lewchuk. NewYork: CambridgeUniversityPress, 1987.Pp.viii + 304; tables, notes, bibliography, index. $44.50. Between 1930 and 1955, the British motor vehicle industry ranked second to the United States in volume of production. Since that time the British industry has fallen to ninth position as it has been progressively overtaken by new mass producers such as Japan, the Soviet Union, and Spain. The wavering fortunes of this industry have naturally attracted academic scrutiny in the past decade. At the center of the multiplicity of problems that brought ultimate ruin to much of the auto industry was the British system of mass production. This system, as Wayne Lewchuk explains, was a distinc­ tive response to the Fordist production methods that were being introduced in Britain after 1911. The American model of production involved direct control of labor by the combination of a fixed wage system, new management methods, and a high investment in produc­ tion technology. In contrast, the British system as it evolved through the 1920s was never able to break the strong influence of the labor unions on the shop floor. Consequently, the control of labor was indirect, through incentive wage payments, while investment in new management methods and production technology was low. Morris Motors, the largest car manufacturer, did not adopt the chain-driven assembly line until as late as 1934. Labor-intensive production meth­ ods and weak managerial control became major problems for the industry as the competition in world markets grew in the 1950s. American Technology and the British Motor Vehicle Industry examines the development of British production and management techniques in the motor vehicle industry from its inception in 1896 to the mid1980s . Early chapters focus on the evolution of effort bargaining in the engineering and vehicle trades, and the difficulties of introducing scientific management and new production methods into small-scale manufacturing firms. These set the scene for the development of the British system between the wars and its gradual collapse in recent decades. Throughout the book the interlocking themes of production technology, labor, and management are carefully examined and succinctly expressed. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 169 Lewchuk’s book, based on detailed research in archival collections on both sides of the Atlantic, reflects new levels of sophistication in work on the motor industry. It will be of interest to readers in a range of disciplines from labor industry to the history of technology. In the detailed discussion of the problems of adapting production technol­ ogy to old institutions, Lewchuk’s work has a place alongside David Hounshell’s From the American System to Mass Production 1800—1932 (1984) and Michael Cusumano’s The Japanese Automobile Industry: Technology and Management at Nissan and Toyota (1985). Gerald T. Bloomfield Dr. Bloomfield is a professor of geography at the University of Guelph. His research interests include the historical geography of the automotive industry in Britain and North America. Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864—1930. By J. F. Wilson. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press and St. Martin’s Press (distributor), 1988. Pp. ix+ 165; appendix, bibli­ ography, index. $39.95. The career of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti (1864—1930), the ItalianBritish electrical engineer, contradicts the stereotypical image of the conservative British entrepreneur of the late Victorian and Edward­ ian periods. With no advanced scientific or engineering education, Ferranti quickly established an international reputation as an imagi­ native and bold electrical inventor who was far ahead of his contem­ poraries. Most of this reputation rests on the Deptford plant, a large central station built 8 miles from London on the other side of the Thames River (where land, coal, and water were inexpensive) in 1888—91. Ferranti designed the plant to supply alternating current to the city from four gigantic generators (10,000...