This volume examines processes by which technological change has been assimilated into capitalist workplaces since the Industrial Revolution. Contributors present theoretical propositions, drawing arguments from neo-classical, Marxist, evolutionary and transaction cost economics, the sociology of Anthony Giddens and Max Weber, and network analysis. These are coupled with historical case studies, including: the growth of the factory system during the industrial revolution in Britain; the German chemical industry and German family firms before World War I; the American automobile industry in the inter-war period; agricultural labour in the American South after World War II; and the recent relationship between US medical specialists and hospitals.