Global Electrification

ISBN-13: 9780521880350 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 512 str.

William J. Hausman; Peter Hertner; Mira Wilkins

Opis

This 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. Their role did not persist, as over time they exited through domestication (buy-outs, confiscations, or other withdrawals), so that 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 unique cooperative effort by the three authors and a group of experts from many countries, offers a fresh analysis of the history of multinational enterprise, taking an integrative approach, not simply comparing national electrification experiences, but supplying a truly global account."

Recenzje

'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

Spis treści

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.