Book Review

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The late Nineteenth-century and the beginning of Twentieth –Century was marked with tremendous changes in economic development of America. Industrialization that paralleled urbanization and increased immigration for the factory labor force was the bases for the change in the economy. These changes were highly dependent on the systems that prevailed in the process of industrialization. Daniel nelson gives a detailed account of these systems in his book, Managers and Workers: Origin of the Twentieth-Century Factory System in the United States, 1880 – 1920. The growth of factory system plays a significant role in the development of modern economy. Managers and Workers focuses on the transition from centralized foreman control to decentralized management system over the factory and its labor force. This transformation involves three inseparable dynamics: technological, managerial and personal.
Nelson gives his account of transformation of factory systems in nine different chapters. In this book the first two chapters, The Setting and The Factory environment (The Factory Exterior and The Factory Interior) (3 – 34) deals with the physical changes of the factory and its environment naming, the growing size and architectural complexity of the factory as a result of technological advancements. The advent of electric power was one of the most important factors in these advancements. “Together with the transformation of factory architecture and the rise of systematic management, electric power made the typical manufacturing plant of 1900 or 1910 far different place from what it had been in 1800.” (22).
The next two chapters, The Foreman’s Empire and The Rise of Scientific management give a detailed account on factory management systems ...

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... armed services, acute labor shortage occurred across the United States. This created an opportunity for more women to enter into industrial jobs. It also resulted in northward local migration of people (769 -770).
Transformation to the new factory system was gradual and took several processes. Nelson concludes it this way, “ The new factory system was thus the product of many simultaneous developments occurred in hundreds and in some cases thousands of individual factories.” (177). In other words it is the legacy of the minds of many individuals who relentlessly worked for the realization of the system. This new factory system is also the bases for the present factory system. A generation works hard, some times sacrificially, and the other generation enjoys the legacy even without noticing what the price was in the past. That is what history is all about.

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