Business and Economic History: Dissertation Sessions, 1967-1999
Dissertation sessions have been a fixture of BHC meetings almost from the beginning. The first recorded instance of a dissertation session at a BHC meeting occurred in 1967. (A "Reports of Advanced Student Research" session was held in 1965; those papers are included in the main index.) The full text of papers presented at dissertation sessions from 1967 through 1999 are provided here. Beginning in 2000, dissertation session material is printed in Enterprise & Society. A sublisting of winners of the Krooss Prize, awarded to the author of the best dissertation presented, is included for the years of BEH publication.
For some early meetings, Dissertation Sessions were printed as one continuous document; in that case, the link to the session will provide access to all the papers; after 1985, the individual summaries are always linked separately.
1967 Dissertation Session
Commercial Banks and Economic Growth in the Ninth Federal Reserve District: A Quantitative Approach
Donald J. Elliott View as PDFCharles Elliott Perkins: Beau and Baron
Herbert C. Goltz View as PDFBetter Britons for the Burlington
Ian MacPherson View as PDFLincoln and the Economics of the American Dream: The Whig Years, 1832-1854
Gabor S. Borit View as PDF
1968 Dissertation Session
Hardware and Drug Wholesaling, 1870-1900
William H. Becker View as PDFGrowth, Stability, and Financial Innovation in the American Economy, 1897-1914
Larry Neal View as PDFThe Loschian Hierarchy of Cities: An Empirical Study of the Indianapolis Region, 1880
J. A. F. Nicholls View as PDFNew York Savings Banks in the Antebellum Years
Alan L. Olmstead View as PDFThe Democracy's Railroads: Internal Improvements in Michigan, 1825-1846
Robert Parks View as PDFThe Origins, Development, and Current Situation of the Negro Life Insurance Industry
Robert C. Puth View as PDFDiscussion of Dissertations
Richard C. Overton View as PDF
1969 Dissertation Session
Introduction
Harold F. Williamson View as PDFGross Farm Revenue in Pre-Civil War Illinois
Robert E. Ankli View as PDFA Business History of the Business Men's Assurance Company
Stephen Butcher View as PDFAmerican Guitar Manufacturing: Oligopoly and the Economics of a Craft Industry
Robert J. Waller View as PDFThe Last Families: A Study of Metropolitan Newspaper Ownership, 1950-1967
Elizabeth E. Swayne Yamashita View as PDF
1972 Dissertation Session
Economic Stabilization by American Business in the Twentieth Century
Evan B. Metcalf View as PDFThe Economic Development of Pueblo, Colorado
Phillip M. Sarver View as PDFCommentary on Dissertations
Samuel H. Williamson View as PDF
1973 Dissertation Session
Urbanization and American Economic Development, 1900-1930: Patterns of Demand in Baltimore and the Nation
Allan D. Anderson View as PDFThe Public Lands of Western Texas, 1875-1900: The Clash of Public and Private Interests
Wilson Elbert Dolman III View as PDFBusiness and Government in the Eisenhower Era
Theodore P. Kovaleff View as PDFThe Development of National Advertising, 1865-1920
Daniel A. Pope View as PDFA Comparative Statistical Analysis of the Growth of Fifteen U.S. Food Distribution Firms, 1948-1967
George A. Prendergast View as PDFA History of the Chisos Mining Company, 1902-1942
Kenneth Ragsdale View as PDFCommentary of Dissertations
Louis Galambos View as PDFDiscussion of Dissertations
Gaston V. Rimlinger View as PDF
1974 Dissertation Session
The Emergence of the Trust Company in New York City: 1870-1900
H. Peers Brewer View as PDFGabriel Kolko vs. the Federal Trade Commission: A Re-evaluation
T. Lane Moore View as PDFThe Dynamics of Oligopoly in the Meat Packing Industry: An Historical Analysis, 1875-1912
Mary Yeager [Kujovich] View as PDFCommentary on Dissertations
View as PDF
No 1975 Dissertation Session
1976 Dissertation Session View as PDF
Draining the Wet Prairie of East Central Illinois
Roger A. WinsorThe Growth of a Refining Region
Joe PrattBusiness Responses to Keynesian Economics, 1929-64
Robert CollinsA Son of Antaeus: James J. Hill and Agricultural Development of the Northwest
Howard DickmanEntrepreneurial Historians and History: An Exploration in the Organization of Intellect
Steven A. SassCommentary on Dissertation Session
Louis P. Cain View as PDF
1977 Dissertation Session View as PDF
Keeping the Corporate Image: Public Relations and Business, 1900-1950
Richard S. TedlowThe Evolution of Private Mineral Rights: Nevada's Comstock Lode
Gary D. LibecapThe Development of Life Insurance in the United States: A Sociological Analysis
Viviana A. ZelizerThe Rise of an Independent Major: The Sun Oil Company, 1876-1945
August W. GiebelhausThe Department Store and Social Change in Modern France: The Case of the Bon Marché
Michael MillerCommentary on Dissertations
Glenn Porter View as PDF
1978 Dissertation Session
Introduction to Dissertation Session
Jeremy A. Atack View as PDFDissertation Summaries View as PDF
The Adoption and Diffusion of the Combined Harvester-Thresher: A Study on Economic History
J. Larry DeatonThe Rise of the American Electrochemicals Industry, 1880-1910: Studies in the American Technological Environment
Martha M. TrescottSouth Africa's Impact on Britain's Return to Gold, 1925
Bruce R. Dalgaard
1979 Dissertation Session View as PDF
Chicago, 1870 and 1900: Wealth, Occupation, and Education
Edward BubnysSaving & Investment in Medieval Egypt
Gladys M. FrantzThe Coming of Sound to the American Cinema: A History of the Transformation of an Industry
Douglas GomeryTaunton and Mason: Cotton Machinery and Locomotive Manufacture in Taunton, Massachusetts, 1811-1861
J. W. LozierAn Empirical Investigation of Farmers' Behavior under Uncertainty: Income, Price, and Yield Variability for Late 19th Century American Agriculture
Robert A. McGuireCommentary on Dissertation Session
Harold D. Woodson View as PDF
No dissertation sessions, 1980-1984
1985 Dissertation Session
Diffusion During Depression: The Adoption of the Tractor by Illinois Farmers
Robert Charles Graham View as PDFIngenious Yankees: The Rise of the American System of Manufactures in the Private Sector
Donald Hoke View as PDFThe Decline and Rise of Charcoal Iron: The Case of Canada
Kris E. Inwood View as PDF
1986 Dissertation Session
Business Location in 1860 and 1870: Evidence from the Manufacturing Censuses
Susan Hotopp View as PDFFrom Conflict to Consensus: The American Institute of Accountants and the Professionalization of Public Accountancy, 1886-1940
Paul J. Miranti, Jr. View as PDF
1987 Dissertation Session
The Photochemical Industry: Historical Essays in Business Strategy and Internationalization
Lutz Alt View as PDFManaging Industrial Decline: Four British Colliery Companies between the Wars
Michael Dintenfass View as PDFHenry E. Huntington and Metropolitan Entrepreneurship in Southern California, 1898-1917
William B. Friedricks View as PDFCoordinating Market Forces: The Anatomy of Investment Decisions in the Japanese Steel Industry, 1945-1975
Patricia A. O'Brien View as PDF
1988 Dissertation Session
Industrial Transformation and Market Integration along the American Manufacturing Frontier: The Midwest from 1850 to 1880
Timothy E. Sullivan View as PDFFarmers as Entrepreneurs: Regulation and Innovation in American Agriculture during the Twentieth Century
Sally Clarke View as PDFRunning the Machine: The Management of Technological Change on American Railroads, 1850-1910
Steven W. Usselman View as PDFThe Passenger Train in the Motor Age: The California Experience, 1910-1941
Gregory L. Thompson View as PDF
1989 Dissertation Session
Testing the Phantom F-4 II: Engineering Practice in the Development of American Military Aircraft, 1954-1969
Glenn E. Bugos View as PDFThe Economics of Multiple Governments: New Jersey Corporate Chartermongering, 1875-1929
Christopher Grandy View as PDFUnited States Direct Investment in Japan: Studies in Government Policy and Corporate Strategy
Mark Mason View as PDFState Intervention and Industrialization: The Origins of the Brazilian Automotive Industry
Helen Shapiro View as PDF
1990 Dissertation Session
International Cooperation and Domestic Cartel Control: The International Steel Cartel, 1926-1938
Daniel Barbezat View as PDFPrivate and Public Responses to Market Failure in the U.S. Electric Power Industry, 1882-1942
William M. Emmons III View as PDFSpreading the Word: The Postal System and the Creation of American Society—A Sketch
Richard R. John View as PDFAnalyzing the Prewar Business Cycle
Anthony Patrick O'Brien View as PDFDirections in Business History: Comments on the Dissertations
Ross Thomson View as PDF
1991 Dissertation Session
Regulated Enterprise: Natural Gas Pipelines and the Competition for Northeastern Markets, 1938-1954
Christopher J. Castaneda View as PDFStage to Studio: American Musicians and Sound Technology in Motion Pictures, Radio, and Recording, 1890-1946
James P. Kraft View as PDFThe Clearing Banks and the Finance of British Industry, 1930-1959
Duncan M. Ross View as PDFSelling Power: Marketing and Monopoly at Boston Edison, 1886-1926
David B. Sicilia View as PDF
1992 Dissertation Session
Financing the Corporate Revolution
William Michael Doyle View as PDFInformation Systems and Internal Organization: A Study of the Dow Chemical Company, 1890-1914
Margaret C. Levenstein View as PDFTo Build Wings for the Angels: Los Angeles and Its Aircraft Industry, 1890-1936
Joseph E. Libby View as PDFWhat Caused Conglomerate Formation: An Examination of Managerial Behavior and Internal Capital Markets in the 1960s Conglomerates
Barbara McCutcheon View as PDF
1993 Dissertation Session
The Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Capital Equipment Sector, and American Industrial Practice in the Nineteenth Century
John K. Brown View as PDFThe Business of Progress: The Transformation of American Advertising, 1870-1920
Pamela Walker Laird View as PDFNiche Products in the British Motor Car Industry: A History of MG and Triumph Sports Cars, 1945-81
Timothy R. Whisler View as PDFCooperatives and Corporations: The Sun-Maid Antitrust Case and the Legal Status of Agricultural Cooperation, 1890-1943
Victoria Saker Woeste View as PDF
1994 Dissertation Session
Building an American Book Trade: Philadelphia Publishing in the New Republic
Rosalind Remer View as PDFMr. Kaiser Goes to Washington: Saga of a Government Entrepreneur
Stephen B. Adams View as PDFThe Rise and Fall of Fraternal Methods of Social Insurance: A Case Study of the Independent Order of Oddfellows of British Columbia Sickness Insurance, 1874-1051
J. C. Herbert Emery View as PDFThe Entry of Established Electronics Companies into the Early Computer Industry in the UK and the USA
Anthony Gandy View as PDFComment on Recent Dissertations in Business History
William R. Childs View as PDF
1995 Dissertation Session
Beyond the Broker State: A History of the Federal Government's Policies toward Small Business, 1936-1961
Jonathan Bean View as PDFCorporate Incentives for Managers in American Industry,, 1900-1940
John Landry View as PDFAmplifying the Voice of Business: Hill and Knowlton's Influence on Political, Public, and Media Discourse in Postwar America
Karen S. Miller View as PDFChain Building: The Consolidation of the American Newspaper Industry, 1955-1980
Elizabeth M. Neiva View as PDF
1996 Dissertation Section
The Making of New York City's Bourgeoisie, 1850-1886
Sven Beckert View as PDFImgaining Consumers: Manufacturers and Markets in Ceramics and Glass, 1865-1965
Regina Lee Blaszczyk View as PDFWhiskey-Manure Engines and "Haut, Fiery Gouts": The Scotch Whiskey Industry and Its Causal Relation to Scotland's Economic Transformation
Peter deH. Caldwell View as PDFCorporate Response to Technological Change: Dieselization and the American Railway Locomotive Industry during the Twentieth Century
Albert Churella View as PDFThe Struggle for Control of the Modern Corporation: Organizational Change at General Motors, 1924-1958
Robert F. Freeland View as PDFDissertation Session Comments
Christine Meisner Rosen View as PDF
1997 Dissertation Session
Of Business Biography, Media Romance, and Corporate Family Drama
Eric Guthey View as PDFWine, Work, and Wealth: Class Relations and Modernization in the Champagne Wine Industry, 1970-1914
Kolleen M. Guy View as PDFThe Electric Car and the Burden of History: Studies in Automotive Systems Rivalry in America, 1890-1996
David A. Kirsch View as PDFThe Myth of the Corporate Economy: Factor Costs, Industrial Structure, and Technological Choice in the Lancashire and New England Cotton Industries, 1900-1913
Timothy Leunig View as PDFRailroads and the Brazilian Economy before 1914
William R. Summerhill View as PDFThe Finance and Growth of the Lancashire Cotton Textile Industry, 1870-1914
J. S. Toms View as PDFDissertation Session Comments
Ann M. Carlos View as PDFDissertation Session Comments
Steven Tolliday View as PDF
1998 Dissertation Session
New Technology, New People, New Organizations: The Rise of the MOS Transistor, 1945-1975
Ross Bassett View as PDF"Business Shall Proceed in the Following Manner": Corporate Managers, the Bureaucratization Process, and the Creation of Divergent Corporate Cultures, 1880-1932
Christiane Diehl-Taylor View as PDFGrowth, Stagnation, and Transition: Economic Implications of Soviet Ministerial Organization
Kerry Ellen Pannell View as PDFManaging the Mills: Labor Policy in the American Steel Industry, 1892-1937
Jonathan Rees View as PDF
1999 Dissertation Session
Introducing Otto H. Kahn
Theresa M. Collins View as PDFCaps and Gowns: Historical Reflections on the Institutions That Shaped Learning for and at Work in Germany and the United States, 1800-1945
Hal Hansen View as PDFFueling the Fires of Genius: Women's Inventive Activities in American War Eras
Lisa A. Marovich View as PDF