Arjan van Rooij. Building Plants: Markets for Technology and Internal Capabilities in DSM's Fertiliser Business, 1925-1970. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Aksant Academic Publishers, 2004. 279 pp. ISBN 90-5260-138-0, $34.95 (paper).

In spite of the central role that specialized engineering firms(firms that focus on the design and construction of industrialplants) have been playing since the end of World War II as makersand traders of the latest technology in many sectors throughoutthe world, historians have largely neglected them. For justfor this reason, we should welcome this book by Arjan van Rooij,whose main concern is precisely the historical contributionof such firms