INVENTING THE ELECTRONIC CENTURY: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries

The consumer electronics industry began with RCA and the commercialization of radio in the 1920s, grew to comprise a wide variety of products and a number of successful companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and eventually became dominated by Japanese companies. In a kind of historical parallel, the computer industry began with several U.S. companies in the 1960s, spread to Europe and Japan, and today is dominated by several large U.S. and Japanese companies. Harvard Business School professor Chandler (Strategy and Structure) delivers a straightforward chronicle of the development of these industries and the rise of the information age. Despite his fondness for words like "epic" and "drama," Chandler's is a names and dates version; not surprisingly, the story is well researched and relatively dry, charting the industry's progression from minicomputers to microprocessors to personal computers and beyond. The organization and expansion of these two high technology industries is enough to warrant many dense pages, and the questions raised—particularly why European companies with 19th-century roots continue to dominate in chemicals and pharmaceuticals, while in consumer electronics and computers, Japan has completely displaced Europe—occupy the author and reader in involved contemplation.(Nov.)

Forecast: Chandler is a respected historian and a noted business author, but the lifelessness of this volume will overshadow its human and business interest.