Chapters

From here you can select a chapter to see sources that correspond to each specific chapter.

Chapter 1 – Chapter One describes the development of productivity as a statistical measure in the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the 1920s…

Chapter 2 – Chapter Two discusses transatlantic exchanges during the 1920s. Individual American businessmen, such as Henry Ford and Edward Filene, actively promoted their views of technology and labor in Europe…

Chapter 3 – With Chapter Three, Productivity Machines moves the discussion from the period before WWII to the period after WWII, and Chapters Three, Four and Five focus on the Marshall Plan’s Productivity Program…

Chapter 4 – Chapter Four provides a deeper analysis of two of the values tied to productivity: free enterprise and collaborative labor relations…

Chapter 5 – Chapter Five turns to the European side, with a focus on West Germany. After discussing the goals of the Productivity Program in West Germany, the chapter examines the exchange programs that exposed countless Europeans to first-hand experiences of American-style productivity with the goal of turning Europeans into ambassadors for American productivity…

Chapter 6 – Chapter Six examines the co-determination debate in Germany…

Chapter 7 – Chapter Seven looks at labor relations in one US multinational company operating in West Germany: the International Business Machines (IBM) corporation…

Chapter 8 – Chapter Eight, finally, discusses the automation debate in West Germany and the United States…