Robert C. Allen. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003. xv + 301 pp. ISBN 0-691-00696-2, $45.00 (cloth).

In this collection of concisely argued essays, Robert C. Allenreexamines several important questions familiar to anyone interestedin Soviet history: the hypothetical development of Russia inthe absence of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution; the standing ofRussia’s and the Soviet Union’s economic and demographicdevelopment in relation to other countries; the controversysurrounding the strategy for economic development after therevolution; the reasons for Stalin’s rapid industrializationand the role of the agricultural sector in it; and     

Richard Dale. The First Crash: Lessons from the South Sea Bubble. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. vi + 192 pp. ISBN 0-691-11971-6, $29.95.

In The First Crash: Lessons from the South Sea Bubble RichardDale offers an easy-to-read history of the South Sea Bubbleof 1720. Though many others have written on the subject, Dalepens this contribution to argue that the South Sea Bubble wasdriven by irrational investors. Because the South Sea Bubblewas the first modern financial bubble, Dale seeks to establishthat irrational behavior began forming bubbles three     

Frank Dobbin, ed. The New Economic Sociology: A Reader. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. vii + 565 pp. ISBN 0-691-04905-X, $65.00 (cloth); 0-691-04906-8, $27.95 (paper).

This volume is designed to ease the entry of advanced sociologystudents into the growing literature in their discipline aboutmarkets and the organizations and individuals who operate withinthem. It can serve this useful function for business historiansas well, although it will take some tenacity on the part of"splitters" to make sense of what the "lumpers" are gettingat. The collection’s twenty chapters include articles fromleading journals and book excerpts and are organized around     

Diane Coyle: Cogs and Monsters: what economics is,and what it should be Princeton University Press, 2021

Business Economics -     

Julie Hessler. A Social History of Soviet Trade: Trade Policy, Retail Practices, and Consumption, 1917-1953. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. xvi + 366 pp. ISBN 0-691-11492-7, $39.50.

Julie Hessler’s work is the first comprehensive historyof the first thirty-five years of Soviet trade written afterthe opening of the Soviet Union’s archives following thatnation’s collapse. It will, without doubt, become a standardwork of reference. Hessler gives due credit to the Soviet historianG. A. Dikhtiar’s three-volume work on Russian and Soviettrade published in the 1960s (in Russian). Despite the book’sobvious ideological overtones, it deserves to be read alongsideHessler’s work. Hessler’s     

Sanford Jacoby. The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. xi + 216 pp. ISBN 0-691-11999-6, $35.00.

This is a very interesting examination of the fate of humanrelations (HR) departments within Japanese and U.S. corporations.Its focus is on the contemporary period and on the pressuresfor change facing both the U.S. and Japanese systems. But italso spends some helpful time situating the current processesof change in historical context. In general, Jacoby is veryinsistent that the changes that occur within the corporationregarding the relative power and function of HR cannot be understoodwithout first understanding the position of     

Jan Luiten van Zanden and Arthur van Riel. The Strictures of Inheritance: The Dutch Economy in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. xv + 377 pp. ISBN 0-691-11438-2, $55.00 (cloth).

The economic history of the Netherlands during the nineteenthcentury demonstrates some remarkable features when comparedwith other countries such as the United Kingdom or Belgium.Dutch industrialization is "slow," "late," and even "different,"often attributed to a lack of natural resources (like coal andore) and/or entrepreneurial spirit. This protracted developmentgenerated some debate between Dutch historians, but no consensuswas reached until the publication in 1968 of J. A. de Jonge’sbook on Dutch industrialization between 1850 and