Merger Movements In American Industry 1895 1956

Between 1895 and 1904 a great wave of mergers swept through the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy. In The Great Merger Movement in American Business, Lamoreaux explores the causes of the mergers, concluding that there was nothing natural or inevitable about turn-of-the-century combinations.

This book provides the reader with an overview of the origin of corporations and the history of mergers and acquisitions. It demystifies the dynamics of mergers and identifies the unique impediments facing cross-border mergers and acquisitions, with great attention to the pre-merger control laws and regulations, in several regions (US, EU, and Middle East). Most importantly, it discusses and assesses merger deregulation and other key reforming proposals.

This book contains a series of interpretive essays on the most dramatic aspects of American economic growth during the last century—the sweeping technological and organizational changes in manufacturing and agriculture and their profound economic and social consequences. The overall focus is the maturing of the American economy from a classic market economy, based primarily on small units of production and private enterprise, through the growth of industrialism and the structural transformation of the economy, to the modern mixed economy with its complex array of giant corporations and labor unions and greatly expanded government sector. The chapters are organized thematically. A distinctive feature of the book is the use of illustrative case studies in each chapter. Peter George is Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at McMaster University. He is also an associate member of the Department of History.