Extractives, Manufacturing, and Services: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide

(Hardback)

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Description

The second volume in the Handbook of American Business History series, this book offers concise histories of extractive, manufacturing, and service industries as well as extensive bibliographic essays pointing to the leading sources on each industry and bibliographic checklists. Supplementing other bibliographic materials in business history, this volume provides researchers with a much needed path through the vast array of material available in the library and on the Internet. Indicating which resources to check and which to bypass, the book is a guide to a sometimes overwhelming amount of information. Each of the book's chapters provides a concise industry history, beginning with the industry's rise to importance in the U.S. and continuing to the present. The bibliographic essays provide a narrative outline of the leading sources published or made available in archives, libraries, or museum collections since 1971, when Lovett's American Economic and Business History Information Sources was published. Each discussion concludes with a bibliographic checklist of the titles mentioned in the essay as well as other titles. In a rapidly expanding information society, researchers, teachers, and students may be easily overwhelmed by the exhaustive material available in print and electronically. What is useful and what can be ignored is a strategic question, and few know where to begin. This book provides a guide.

Reviews

The Whittens are well versed in American business history. They provide bibliographical essays and bibliographies in sections covering 16 industries.... Each of the chapters is accompanied by an excellent concise history to the present of the industry's rise to importance in the US.... Recommended for all academic libraries.-Choice
With its companion volumes, it is a research tool that will prove useful in many...university libraries....It will prove valuable in your university library if you have students whose research involves these 16 industries and who want some perspectives on the titles they find--however they search.-Book Reviews
"With its companion volumes, it is a research tool that will prove useful in many...university libraries....It will prove valuable in your university library if you have students whose research involves these 16 industries and who want some perspectives on the titles they find--however they search."-Book Reviews
"The Whittens are well versed in American business history. They provide bibliographical essays and bibliographies in sections covering 16 industries.... Each of the chapters is accompanied by an excellent concise history to the present of the industry's rise to importance in the US.... Recommended for all academic libraries."-Choice

Author Bio

DAVID O. WHITTEN is Professor of Economics at Auburn University and Editor of Business Library Review. He is the author of several books and articles and a past president of the Economic and Business Historical Society. BESSIE E. WHITTEN is Editor of Business Library Review, with David Whitten, and coeditor of Manufacturing: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide, also with David Whitten.