Mastering iron: the struggle to modernize an American industry, 1800-1868 - 43870

Anne Kelly Knowles argues that the prolonged development of the US iron industry was largely due to geographical problems the British did not face.

Pairing exhaustive manuscript research with analysis of a detailed geospatial database that she built of the industry, Knowles reconstructs the American iron industry in unprecedented depth, from locating hundreds of iron companies in their social and environmental contexts to explaining workplace culture and social relations between workers and managers.