overview

drivers

utilities

transport

finance

media

chemicals

+ studies

metals

food

auto/aero

property

infrastructure

engineering

retail

hospitality

packaging

clothing

ICT

advertising

accounting

tobacco

pharma

collapses

































related
Profiles
& Notes:

telecoms
bubble

Aust & NZ
telecoms

telco
privatisations

telco
mergers &
acquisitions

IPOs

Private
Equity
Funds

Hedge
Funds

Collectibles,
Prices,
Cultures

     chemicals and plastics (studies)

This page supplements the note on benchmarks in the chemicals and plastics sectors, highlighting literature on those industries.

It covers -

• industry overviews
• the IG
• UK
• US
• people

Other pointers are provided here in discussion of resources regarding the pharmaceutical sector.

     industry overviews

A panoramic view of recent chemical and pharmaceutical sector developments and drivers is provided in Alfred Chandler's Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries (Cambridge: Harvard Uni Press 2005), The Global Chemical Industry in the Age of the Petrochemical Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2006) edited by Louis Galambos, Takashi Hikino & Vera Zamagni, R&D, Innovation and Competitiveness in the European Chemical Industry (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press 2004) edited by Cesaroni, Gambardella & Garcia-Fontes and Value Creation: Strategies for the Chemical Industry (New York: Wiley-VCH 2006) edited by Florian Budde, Utz-Hellmuth Felcht & Heiner Frankemölle.

For a long term view see Fred Aftalion's A History of the International Chemical Industry (Philadelphia: Uni of Pennsylvania Press 1991), Determinants in the Evolution of the European Chemical Industry, 1900-1939: New Techologies, Political Frameworks, Markets and Companies (London: Kluwer 1998) edited by Peter Morris & Anthony Travis, The Chemical Industry, 1900-1930: International Growth & Technological Change (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1971) by LF Haber, Chemicals and Long-Term Economic Growth: Insights from the Chemical Industry (New York: Wiley-Interscience 1998) edited by Ashish Arora, Ralph Landau & Nathan Rosenberg and the thinner Synthetic Worlds: Nature, Art & the Chemical Industry (London: Reaktion 2007) by Esther Leslie.

     the IG

For Farben and its successors see in particular Industry & Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1987) by Peter Hayes, Helmuth Tammen's IG Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft (1925- 1933): Ein Chemiekonzern in der Weimarer Republik (Berlin: 1978), Raymond Stokes' Divide and Prosper: The Heirs of I G Farben under Allied Authority 1945-1951 (Berkeley: Uni of California Press 1988), Stephan Lindner's Inside IG Farben: Hoechst during the Third Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2008), Kim Coleman's IG Farben and ICI, 1925-53: Strategies for Growth and Survival (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2006), Interhandel: Die schweizerische Holding der IG Farben und ihre Metamorphosen - eine Affäre um Eigentum und Interessen, 1910-1999 (Zurich: Chronos 2001) by Mario König and German Industry & Global Enterprise: BASF, The History of a Company (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2004) by Werner Abelshauser et al. A pop treatment is provided in Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine (New York: Metropolitan 2008) by Diarmuid Jeffreys.

     UK

For ICI and Courtaulds see D C Coleman's three volume Courtaulds: An Economic and Social History (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1969-1980), William Reader's two volume Imperial Chemical Industries: A History (London: Oxford Uni Press 1970-1975) and Jeff Pearcy's Recording an Empire: An Accounting History of Imperial Chemical. Industries Ltd, 1926-1976 (Glasgow: ICAS 2001).

     US

For DuPont see G. Taylor's Du Pont and the International Chemical Industry (1984), Alfred Chandler's Pierre S. Du Pont and The Making of the Modern Corporation (New York: Harper & Row 1971), David Hounshell & John Smith's Science and Strategy: DuPont R&D 1902-1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1988) and Nylon and Bombs: DuPont and the March of Modern America (Baltimore: John Hopkins Uni Press 2006) by Pap Ndiaye.

Dow appears in E. N. Brandt's Growth Company: Dow Chemical's First Century (East Lansing: Michigan State Uni Press 2000) and Don Whitehead's The Dow Story: The History of the Dow Chemical Company (New York: McGraw-Hill 1968).

     people

For Haber and Bosch see Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew: A Biography (Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation 2005) by Dietrich Stoltzenberg, Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production (Cambridge: MIT Press 2004) by Vaclav Smil, Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (New York: Ecco 2005) by Daniel Charles.




   next page (metals and mining)