Industrialization, Immigrants, and Americanizers

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 109 monly available, and what is required is talent and dedication. The ques­ tion of maximum monetary gain does not seem to be of prime impor­ tance—this is, in fact, another and completely different talent: that of salesmanship and promotional ability. Here we have another case of the self-trained master of a technical art, a frequent characteristic in the history of technology, with some talent also for salesmanship. Howard I. Chapelle* Industrialization, Immigrants, and Americanizers: The View from Mil­ waukee, 1866-1921. By Gerd Korman. Madison: State Historical So­ ciety of Wisconsin, 1967. Pp. vii+225; illustrations. $4.50. This study “examines the process by which a polyglot population evolved the techniques for coping with the problems of an emerging in­ dustrial society.” Its author believes that “industrialization, and related processes such as the absorption of immigrants, patterns of occupational change, or the rationalization of social relations demands from the his­ torian a microscopic approach.” And so he chose Milwaukee as “espe­ cially suitable for a fine-structure analysis of complex processes attend­ ing industrial growth” because it was the largest city in one of the first states “to cope systematically with the social consequences of burgeon­ ing growth of population and industry so characteristic of the last third of the nineteenth century.” But in his Introduction the author, in placing his microscopic study in a national context, further narrows his interest by excluding the more explicitly political aspects in favor of the factory setting proper. No historian or student of industrial relations would question the importance of the task Professor Korman, of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, has set himself, least of all this re­ viewer. Indeed, his prospectus promises refreshing relief from the con­ ventional approaches to the study of industrial relations. Unfortunately, perhaps because his undertaking was far too ambitious, he has failed to produce all the results we are led to expect. The author begins by describing Milwaukee in terms of its industry, its labor supply (which meant necessarily the immigrant), and its indus­ trial leadership, including that at the shop level. Although he has used often neglected sources, such as state government and business archives, and has developed some of his own through interviews, he has provided an incomplete picture of the industrial setting of Milwaukee. Perhaps Korman’s study should have waited until we had a fuller picture of Milwaukee’s industrial growth between the Civil War and World War I. There are important and peculiar characteristics of Milwaukee industry which first must be not only identified and described but also evaluated * Mr. Chapelle, senior historian, Science and Technology Department of the Smithsonian Institution, is the author of The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. 110 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY ANO CULTURE for their effect on industrial relations, and these do not emerge clearly in this study. I would include among these the local sources of capital; the multiplicity of small machine shops; the persistence of family ownership, management, and control; the emphasis on capital goods; the transporta­ tion difficulties created by Chicago’s nearness; and the relative weakness of national firms, to name only a few. Without waiting for these much-needed studies of Milwaukee’s indus­ trial development, Korman has necessarily depended on his own re­ sources. This has meant using such sources as were at hand, both primary and secondary, on a limited number of Milwaukee firms and entrepre­ neurs. The result is somewhat uneven and perhaps misleading, for it seems to give the same weight to evidence drawn from firms of quite different size and importance and from their diverse experiences scat­ tered over a long time span. Most serious is the resulting absence of any clear picture of technological change in Milwaukee industry and its con­ sequences; there seems to be an assumption that adoption, rejection, or ignoring of technology in industrial production in Milwaukee corre­ sponded to the national pattern, whereas it would be precisely in such local deviations that a microscopic study would be most helpful. The larger portion of the study focuses on Milwaukee responses to the changing demands in industrial relations. Korman

Immigration · Industrialisation · Political science · Population · Rationalization (economics) · Sociology · American History and Culture · Demography · Law