Americanization and its Limits: Theory and Practice in the Reconstruction of Britain's Engineering Industries, 1945-55

A central problem confronting all West European economies after World War I! was that of Americanization. How far should European industry be reconstructed in the image of the United States, unquestionably the dominant economic and military power of the postwar world? To contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, Americanization of industry meant above all mass production -the high-volume manufacture of standardized goods using special-purpose machinery and predominately unskilled labor -together with the host of "systematic" management techniques developed for its efficient administration. Beyond the intrinsic appeal of such methods to Europeans aspiring to emulate American productivity and abundance, moreover, US policy makers actively sought o promote their diffusion through the technical assistance programs and investment funds associated with the Marshall Plan.