Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878-2007

摘要

Comparative business history is not generally done well. One exception is Thomas Hughes' classic Networks of Power, which thoughtfully compares the experience of three large countries in the pioneering stages of electrification. But what of the countries that had fewer capabilities and depended on the advanced economies of Europe and North America for finance, management or technology in this field? The problems of comparative history are sometimes magnified rather than solved when multinational teams produce collective volumes but fail to sing to a common theme. This volume - by three complementary and distinguished experts in different fields of business history, with the assistance (acknowledged in specific chapters) of a wider range of contributors from France, the US, New Zealand, Canada, Norway and Italy - demonstrates triumphantly that the problems can be managed.