Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism.

Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. By ALFRED D. CHANDLER, JR., Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990, Pp. xix, 860, $35.00.

This is a standard-setting book. It sets the standard for managerial history. It is a masterpiece of profound significance to the theory of economic development and to economic theory in general. Professor Chandler does institutional analysis as it should be done. It should be done by saturation with historical detail, immersion in comparative analysis, and penetration of surface appearance down to common denominator and major trend. In short, this book is the product of a lifetime of work by a master craftsman.

This book is an extension and culmination of several of Professor Chandler's earlier books. In his 1962 Strategy and Structure, Chandler investigated the relations between the firm's growth strategy and its organizational structure. In his 1971 Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation with Stephen Salsbury, Chandler described the organizational innovations of Pierre S. du Pont and analyzed the significance of these innovations to the organizational forms of other firms. In his 1977 The Visible Hand, he explained how the growing role of salaried managers working in large multidivisional organizations …