Economic historians have to respond favorably when sociologist–feminist scholar Christine Bose early in her text writes, “This book is intended to provide a historical perspective on contemporary issues that all too often are analyzed only in terms of the present” (p. 3). She returns frequently to this theme, stressing that female participation in the labor force began long before the late 1960s. Of course, numerous economic historians have noted that such participation began long before 1900 and their work, unsurprisingly, exhibits stronger understanding of historical economic conditions than does Women in 1900. Bose's intent, however, is not to study women throughout U.S. history; rather, she analyzes data on 29,673 women included in the Public Use Sample of the 1900 census to re-estimate female labor-force participation, and determine the effect of gender, race, ethnicity, and class on that participation. Her most valuable contribution comes through matching her sample observations with county economic data obtained through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. She uses these data to generate what she calls contextual variables, basically regional and urban or rural location of the sample respondent, and average female manufacturing wage and population characteristics of the respondent's county.

By the 1920s over 90 percent of primary-school teachers in the United States were women. But in 1860, only a third of Southern rural teachers were female whereas in New England and Mid-Atlantic rural areas, modern proportions had already been attained. One of the main objectives of this careful and lucid study is to examine the reasons for these different regional patterns.

David Jack Cowen aims to clarify the economic history of early America by increasing our understanding of the “premier financial institution of the day, the First Bank of the United States” (p. 235). Cowen exploits archival material on the Bank of the United States (BUS), including new information about BUS balance sheets. He examines actions of the BUS through analysis of its balance sheets and ties this evidence to recent research that has generated information about securities (bond) prices. He also reviews contemporary correspondence as well as the minutes of BUS board meetings to glean information about motivation behind BUS activities. These bits and pieces are used to support Cowen's major interpretation of BUS actions in this era: that the BUS acted as an agent for the U.S. Treasury and, at the direction of various Treasury secretaries, acted as a central bank.

The point of departure of this book is the assertion that recent scholarship has treated the British cotton-textile industry unfairly because of the strong tendency to situate the industry in the U.S. blueprint of development. The result, Mary Rose believes, has led to some misunderstanding of the rise and decline of the British industry. Rose reverses the standard approach and views the development of U.S. industry through British lenses.

Written as his doctoral dissertation at Johns Hopkins University and published as a book in 1921, Mitchell's study was a highly influential study of the explosive growth of cotton manufacturing in the southeastern United States from 1880 to World War I. The first scholarly assessment of what would become the leading industry of the region and set within the historical context of that region, Mitchell's book was, as Carlton says, “[r]ooted in the militant modernizing ethos of the Progressive era reform milieu” (p. x).

This is a book that deserves a wider readership than its title might suggest. More than a narrow history concerning health and pension benefits received by one union, it touches on nearly every issue that has been raised concerning health care and social-security reform. Richard Mulcahy accomplishes this feat through a clearly written narrative history that seldom strays from its basic story line. The story involves the founding, development and demise of medical coverage provided by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Welfare and Retirement Fund. Furthermore Mulcahy provides what might be called a revisionist historical assessment of John L. Lewis, president of the UMWA; specifically that his regime might not have been the “Corrupt Kingdom” described by William Finley (The Corrupt Kingdom. The Rise and Fall of the United Mine Workers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972).

In this study of the economic rhetoric of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, 1929–1933, Davis Houck tries boldly to link the fields of rhetoric, history, and economics. He claims to “have established the crucial relationship between rhetoric and economics. Specifically, economic recovery is premised, in part, on collective confidence, which, in turn, is influenced by both presidential speech and cooperative legislative action” (p. 199).

The basic problem with writing a history of American Big Business is finding some method to organize the familiar chronicles of companies and people as well as the usual stories of good and evil into some coherent book of reasonable length. The organizing method adopted by Charles Geisst is to focus on the popular reaction to “monopolies,” more accurately, private concentrations of economic power. For the most part, this method succeeds, assisted in no small part by Geisst's smooth style and cynical, perhaps jaded, attitude.

Jonathan Bean's book chronicles the growth and development of the Small Business Administration (SBA) from its inception in 1953 through the present. In addition to placing the SBA's actions in the context of changing political environments, the book focuses on three separate issues, though it is not organized this way. The first two are different types of affirmative action: preferences and subsidies for “small” firms, and preferences for people who have been “economically disadvantaged.” Finally, it chronicles the history of scandal and corruption that has plagued the SBA.

During the late 1980s the United States experienced a major wave of corporate leveraging as firms substituted debt for equity. The boom peaked in 1989, after which the junk bond market collapsed, bank credit tightened, and leveraged buyouts (LBOs) dropped off sharply. Beginning in 1991, the favorable stock market helped firms that had been taken private with largely borrowed money to survive by issuing public equity. As the economy recovered from recession, mergers and acquisitions resumed the acceleration that had begun in the 1980s. Corporate restructuring often occurred without much leveraging, however, and in the more friendly deals of the 1990s CEOs were likely to be in control.

The introduction of commercial jet service in 1959 transformed the face of the Hawaiian Islands. By reducing both the time required to travel to Hawai‘i and the money price of travel, the jet plane brought increasing numbers of tourists to Hawai‘i, and in the process, triggered an enormous wave of development on the four major islands. Mansel Blackford's new book focuses on how tourism affected the development of Maui, a beautiful tropical island of just 727 square miles. In 1956 Maui had unspoiled, beautiful beaches; sugar cane and pineapple as the main industries; small towns with a relaxed lifestyle; just 37,600 residents; and only 29,000 annual visitors. By 1998 Maui had been totally transformed. The population had more than tripled to 121,000 residents; the annual visitor count had soared to 2,244,000 people; only two sugar plantations remained; bumper-to-bumper traffic jams had become the norm; planned resorts in Wailea and K\bar{{\rm a}}‘anapali and a more sprawling tourism complex in Kihei were clustered around the most beautiful beaches; and the small rural towns had grown into tourism and commercial centers.

The contraceptive pill is widely assumed to have had a revolutionary effect on society, but its origins and the changes it is said to have brought about have not been fully explored. A recent history of the pill by Elizabeth Watkins did much to fill that gap (On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950–1970. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). Sexual Chemistry adds both an international perspective and a rich level of detail to the story.

Ray Barrell, Geoff Mason, and Mary O'Mahony have compiled a volume that includes a smattering of economic history, the service sector, the IT revolution, international competitiveness, capital markets, R&D, and education. The connections between these topics are surprisingly coherent from one to the next, although the coherence of the whole is mainly implied. In 11 chapters by 23 contributors, this trim volume examines the complex interaction of innovation and productivity in Britain in the last 20-plus years.

This short book contains ten essays, primarily by Polish, Portuguese, and U.S. economists, presented at a 1998 conference in Cracow. In the preface the editors tell us that “the subject of these papers is the connection between moral values and economic activities, and this ‘psychic and spiritual energy’ should supply us with a more complex and complete picture of the problems of economic transition.”

The title of this book is an outline of De Landa's agenda. He wants to convey his philosophical approach to history using examples chosen from the last 1,000 years of human history. “Nonlinear” refers to feedbacks and interactions that prevent movement toward a unique equilibrium. The author interprets history through a series of extended metaphors that link biology, geology, and linguistics to human history. The book is divided into sections corresponding to these classifications. The first, “Lavas and Magmas,” makes connections between history and geology; the second, “Flesh and Genes,” connects history and biology; and the third, “Memes and Norms,” connects history with linguistics. Within each section De Landa illustrates his approach with examples from the (approximately) last “thousand years of nonlinear history.”

In this provocative book, Hernando de Soto argues that the reason why transitional and developing economies have had such limited success with adopting capitalism is the lack of formal property rights for the urban poor. Without legal ownership of the homes they inhabit or the businesses they operate, the poor live in a shadow economy, subject to high risk of expropriation, bureaucratic arbitrariness, and political corruption. The absence of title thwarts investment, limits markets, dampens incentives, and retards economic growth all round. The comparatively poor performance of many Latin American, African, and Asian economies stems not from cultures that are alien to commercial activity, from the legacy of past colonialism, or from low savings rates among the poor. The urban poor are entrepreneurs, and formal property institutions are needed to free their energies and expand their opportunities, allowing them to accumulate desperately needed capital. Currently, the urban poor are forced to hold their wealth in defective forms. This misallocation cripples developing economies. According to de Soto, the potential gain is huge. He argues that despite their lack of affluence, the poor still save, and in the aggregate the amounts exceed by perhaps 40 times all of the foreign aid sent to developing countries since 1945. Freeing up these savings and entrepreneurial energy could lead to a second industrial revolution, and end the disparities of wealth and well-being that differentiate the developed and developing worlds.

What difference did the First World War make to the international economy? Since “one thing leads to another,” avoiding this conflict might have prevented the Bolshevik revolution and the Second World War. The Soviet empire need not have collapsed because it would never have arisen. By the same token, the Fascist rulers of Europe and the militaristic government of Japan might never have come to power. On this reckoning, the impact of the “Great War” was to take the twentieth century on a long detour.