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A Familiar Compound Ghost explores the relationship between allusion and the uncanny in literature. An unexpected echo or quotation in a new text can be compared to the sudden appearance of a ghost or mysterious double, the reanimation of a corpse, or the discovery of an ancient ruin hidden in a modern city. In this scholarly and suggestive study, Brown identifies moments where this affinity between allusion and the uncanny is used by writers to generate a particular textual charge, where uncanny elements are used to flag patterns of allusion and to point to the haunting presence of an earlier work. A Familiar Compound Ghost traces the subtle patterns of connection between texts centuries, even millennia apart, from Greek tragedy and Latin epic, through the plays of Shakespeare and the Victorian novel, to contemporary film, fiction and poetry. Each chapter takes a different uncanny motif as its focus: doubles, ruins, reanimation, ghosts and journeys to the underworld.
Business History has developed as an academic subject since the 1970s. However, the insights of scholarly business historians have not been widely accessible to students because of the lack of a suitable textbook on which to base a one- or two- semester course. The present work is designed tofill this gap. Jeremy, drawing on recent research and debate, plainly outlines the history of major aspects of business behaviour in twentieth century Britain. Moreover, he presumes little prior knowledge of history, business, or economics on the student's part. The text is organized in three sections: the business environment; business organisation; and entrepreneurship and management. The first section outlines the changes that have most powerfully affected business, including global political and economic developments, and technological changes. Thesecond section deals with business structures and strategies, merger waves, multinationals and small firms. Special attention is given to the role of the City of London and the financial sector, and also to the revolution in retailing. The third part of the text examines the social origins,education, and training of business leaders and evaluates the performance of British management with respect to research and development, labour relations, and marketing. The last two chapters are about the shaping of company culture and business ethics. Common to all the chapters are: the chapter's objectives an outline of chapter contents a concluding list of points the student should have learned discussion questions a guide to further reading A variety of key ideas or viewpoints is presented in boxes. Numerous tables summarise numerical data. Charts and maps have been included where appropriate.
This collection of fresh, incisive scholarship, by some of the leading business historians, critically examines the nature of economic recovery in Britain in recent years. Covering the key issues for business history in this period, the book confronts the traditional literature on conclusions of relative decline, and monocausal, simplistic explanations. It provides an impressive range of studies forming a platform for a new debate on the nature of British business in the 20th century. Themes include productivity, management, research and development, marketing, regional clusters and networks, industrial policy, the use of technology, and gender. Sector studies include newer, post-war hopefuls and successes including: * aerospace, * IT, * retail, * banking, * overseas investment, * the creative industries. The book demonstrates that our understanding of the historic strengths and weaknesses of business in Britain, and the shifting balance between sectors of the economy, has until now been poorly understood, and that British business history needs a fundamental reappraisal.
This 2003 book offered the first in-depth international survey of contemporary research and debates in business history. Over the two decades leading to its publication, enormous advances had been made in writing the history of business enterprise and business systems. Historians are documenting and analyzing the evolution of a wide range of important companies and systems, their patterns of innovation, production, and distribution, their financial affairs, their political activities, and their social impact. Each essay is written by a prominent authority who provides an assessment of the state and significance of research in his or her area. This volume is a reference work that will be of immense value to historians, economists, management researchers, and others concerned to access the latest insights on the evolution of business throughout the world.
It is commonplace to assume that the twentieth-century British economy has failed, falling from the world's richest industrial country in 1900 to one of the poorest nations of Western Europe in 2000. Manufacturing is inevitably the centre of this failure: British industrial managers cannot organise the proverbial 'knees-up' in a brewery; British workers are idle and greedy; its financial system is uniquely geared to the short term interests of the City rather than of manufacturing; its economic policies areperverse for industry; and its culture is fundamentally anti-industrial. There is a grain of truth in each of these statements, but only a grain. In this book, Alan Booth notes that Britain's living standards have definitely been overtaken, but evidence that Britain has fallen continuously further and further behindits major competitors is thin indeed. Although British manufacturing has been much criticised, it has performed comparatively better than the service sector. The British Economy in the Twentieth Century combines narrative with a conceptual and analytic approach to review British economic performance during the twentieth century in a controlled comparative framework. It looks at key themes, including economic growth and welfare, the working of the labour market, and the performance of entrepreneurs and managers. Alan Booth argues that a careful, balanced assessment (which must embrace the whole century rather than simply the post-war years) does not support the loud and persistent case for systematic failure in British management, labour, institutions, culture and economic policy. Relative decline has been much more modest, patchy and inevitable than commonly believed.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Britain was amongst the world leaders in the production of machine tools, yet by the 1980s the industry was in terminal decline. Focusing on the example of Britain's largest machine tool maker, Alfred Herbert Ltd of Coventry, this study charts the wider fortunes of this vital part of the manufacturing sector. Taking a chronological approach, the book explores how during the late nineteenth century the industry developed a reputation for excellence throughout the world, before the challenges of two world wars necessitated drastic changes and reorganisations. Despite meeting these challenges and emerging with confidence into the post-war market place, the British machine tool industry never regained its pre-eminent position, and increasingly lost ground to foreign competition. By using the example of Alfred Herbert Ltd to illuminate the broader economic and business history of the British machine tool industry, this study not only provides a valuable insight into British manufacturing, but also contributes to the ongoing debates surrounding Britain's alleged decline as a manufacturing nation.
This title was first published in 2002: The history of management consulting in Britain is a subject that has received little attention in the past in terms of research or publication. This work redresses the gap in the knowledge base of business and management history, presenting the historical situation in the context of management consulting. Identifying the beginnings of consultancy services in the mid-nineteenth century, Ferguson charts its progression through a series of time frames that span the twentieth century. Utilizing a series of consistent themes, such as service delivery forms and training, which can be compared and contrasted across time, the book provides not only a history of management consultancy services, but also shows how the take-up and form of services was heavily dependent upon the prevailing attitudes within business to the role of management. The thoroughly researched and well-presented arguments in this book will greatly add to our knowledge of British management during the twentieth century.
Competitive advantage in banking comes from effective use of technology The Handbook of Banking Technology provides a blueprint for the future of banking, with deep insight into the technologies at the heart of the industry. The rapid evolution of IT brings continual change and demand for investment — yet keeping pace with these changes has become an essential part of doing business. This book describes how banks can harness the power of current and upcoming technology to add business value and gain a competitive advantage; you'll learn how banks are using technology to drive business today, and which emerging trends are likely to drive the evolution of banking over the next decade. Regulation is playing an ever increasing role in banking and the impact of regulatory change on technology and the management of it are discussed — while mandatory changes put pressure on many of our high street banking brands, their ability to adapt and utilise technology will have a fundamental impact on their success in the rapidly changing marketplace. Technology costs can amount to 15 per cent or more of operational costs and bank leaders need to be able to make informed decisions about technology investments in light of the potential benefits. This book explores the depth and breadth of banking technology to help decision makers stay up to date and drive better business. Assess your current technology against the new banking paradigms Procure the systems needed to protect the bottom line Implement newer technology more efficiently and effectively Ensure compliance and drive value with appropriate technology management Technological change is driven by mass adoption of new channels, innovation from new entrants, and by banks themselves as a means of increasing revenue and reducing costs. The Handbook of Banking Technology offers a comprehensive look at the role of technology in banking, and the impact it will have in the coming years.
British Housebuilders is the first comprehensive account of the corporate history of the twentieth-century speculative housebuilding industry - the firms that `supplied` those houses and the entrepreneurs who created those firms. The transition from the local housebuilders of the 1930s, through the regional diversification of the 1960s, to the national housebuilders of today is charted via a series of industry league tables. The rationale for the growth in national firms is analysed. The conventional explanation of economies of scale is rejected: instead, the stock market is found to play a key role both in facilitating acquisitions and in demanding growth from its constituent companies. The supply-side analysis also addresses the frequent corporate failures: succession issues, lack of focus and the 1974 and 1990 recessions have played their part in equal measure. British Housebuilders provides the first opportunity to review the evidence drawn from a century of speculative housebuilding; it is only with this historical perspective that sound judgements can be made on the corporate role in housebuilding.
The recent global financial crisis has been characterised as a turning point in the way we respond to financial crime. Focusing on this change and ‘crime in the commercial sphere’, this text considers the legal and economic dimensions of financial crime and its significance in societal consciousness in twenty-first century Britain. Considering how strongly criminal enforcement specifically features in identifying the post-crisis years as a ‘turning point’, it argues that nineteenth-century encounters with financial crime were transformative for contemporary British societal perceptions of ‘crime’ and its perpetrators, and have lasting resonance for legal responses and societal reactions today. The analysis in this text focuses primarily on how Victorian society perceived and responded to crime and its perpetrators, with its reactions to financial crime specifically couched within this. It is proposed that examining how financial misconduct became recognised as crime during Victorian times makes this an important contribution to nineteenth-century history. Beyond this, the analysis underlines that a historical perspective is essential for comprehending current issues raised by the ‘fight’ against financial crime, represented and analysed in law and criminology as matters of enormous intellectual and practical significance, even helping to illuminate the benefits and potential pitfalls which can be encountered in current moves for extending the reach of criminal liability for financial misconduct. Sarah Wilson’s text on this highly topical issue will be essential reading for criminologists, legal scholars and historians alike. It will also be of great interest to the general reader. The Origins of Modern Financial Crime was short-listed for the Wadsworth Prize 2015.