The wealth of new materials, the comparative framework, the implications for the East-West struggle for power, the very great lucidity with which Bendix writes about complex materials, and not least, the detached, highly scholarly attitude he brings to his work, combine to make this into a sociological research of the first rank." -American Sociological Review

"The book is truly global in its approach. It seeks to explain the rationalizations and justifications used in the subordination of employees in work organizations not only in the United States but also in England, Russia, and East Germany." -Industrial and Labor Relations Review

Work and Authority in Industry analyzes how the entrepreneurial class responded to the challenge of creating, and later managing, an industrial work force in widely differing types of industrial societies: the United States, England, and Russia. Bendix's penetrating re-examination of an aspect of economic history largely taken for granted was first published in 1965. It has become a classic. His central notion, that the behavior of the capitalist class may be more important than the behavior of the working class in determining the course of events, is now widely accepted. The book explores industrialization, management, and ideological appeals; entrepreneurial ideologies in England's early phase of industrialization; entrepreneurial ideologies in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russia; the bureaucratization of economic enterprises; and the American experience with -industrialization. This essential text will interest those in the fields of political science, industrial relations, management studies, as well as comparative sociologists and historians.

Reinhard Bendix (1916-1991) was professor of sociology and political science at the University of California at Berkeley, from 1947 to 1987. His books include Nation-Building and Citizenship, Embattled Reason, Unsettled Affinities, From Berlin to Berkeley (all from Transaction), Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, and Kings or People.

Mauro F. Guilln is on the faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has published three books: The AIDS Disaster, Models of Management, and Diversity in Globalization.