612 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE commercial systems, too large for acquisition by a museum, went into the earliest tall buildings, skyscrapers, and thus have obvious historical significance. Vogel decided to accept the “tiny exemplar of the late 19th century’s primary elevator technology” (p. 9). In operation from 1902 to 1942, the hydraulic elevator had been installed in an existing five-story brick house. Building permit files at the Boston Public Library and architectural records at various histor ical agencies yielded no information on the elevator. Because a street main provided water under pressure to power the elevator motor, water became a clue. The identity of the company that installed the elevator was found in records of Boston’s Water Department, records now kept by the Boston Water & Sewerage Commission (not in a historical repository). The Elevator Service Application of 1902 listed E. Brewer & Company. Elias Brewer built the elevator with equipment made by others. His company is one of twenty-one elevator firms listed in the Boston city directory of 1877—the first year Brewer appeared under the category “elevators.” Brewer conducted a “generally modest level” of elevator business into the early 20th century (p. 35). Historians other than Vogel have published little on the history of elevators. In this booklet, as well as in his earlier Elevator Systems ofthe Eiffel Tower, 1889 (1961), Vogel provides clear and technical descrip tions of elevator systems, historical narratives about specific installa tions, and informative notes on primary source material. He ap proaches his topic from the perspectives of history of technology, industrial archaeology, and museum studies. Preservationists have a narrower approach to the subject, as illustrated by Marilyn E. Kaplan’s recent “Replicating Historic Elevator Enclosures” (Mechan ical Systems no. 1 of the National Park Service’s Preservation Tech Notes series, PTN-24, June 1989). Vogel’s case study is a valuable guide for historians of technology and an informative text on the history of elevators. Anne Millbrooke Dr. Millbrooke manages the Archive and Historical Resource Center of United Technologies Corporation, including the archives of the Otis Elevator Company (a subsidiary of United Technologies). She has published several brief articles on the history of Otis elevators. HenryJ. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West. By Mark S. Foster. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. Pp. xiv + 358; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95. HenryJ. Kaiser—American Empire Builder: An Insider’s View. By Albert P. Heiner. New York: Peter Lang, 1989. Pp. 434; illustrations, index. $57.95. One of America’s most publicized and renowned industrialists of the mid-20th century, Henry J. Kaiser (1882—1967) is remembered TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 613 for his work in a variety of fields: highway and dam construction, shipbuilding, aluminum refining, steel production, automobile man ufacturing, Hawaiian real estate development, and health care. By the 1960s, the Kaiser empire extended across a wide range of American life, but today its legacy is largely mute. In fact, except for the ever-burgeoning Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (this country’s pioneer health maintenance organization), the industrial conglomerate carefully built and nurtured by Henry J. has essen tially disappeared in waves of closings and takeovers during the past two decades. During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Kaiser operated as an extremely successful (if somewhat autocratic) entrepreneur who came to exemplify the “can-do” philosophy of American business at its best. For this alone he is a figure worthy of intense historical scrutiny. Now, almost twenty-five years after his death, two books are available that describe in detail Kaiser’s life from his birth in upstate New York to his death in Hawaii 85 years later. Mark Foster, history professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, has written a well-documented, academic biography that stands as a basic reference work on the industrialist’s multifaceted career. Albert Heiner is a former public relations officer for Kaiser who has produced a more personalized account of his former boss’s work; although not refer enced in a scholarly fashion, Heiner’s book is not the “puff piece” that some might expect from a former public relations man. In fact, the two books are remarkably similar...