Durn D.L. The economic history of steelmaking, 1867-1939: A study in competition

Cambridge University Press, 1940. — 548 p.The subtitle will help to make clear the scope and focus of this book. All the main aspects of the economic history of steelmaking are touched upon, but no attempt has been made to treat them in equal density. Nor are particular aspects invariably handled with the same fullness at all stages. Thus for instance, technology figures far more prominently in Book I than later. The reasons for such changes of emphasis are, I hope, obvious ; save at one point. The developments of the late ’thirties
are dealt with on a more insular canvas than those of earlier periods, not because international comparison seemed to become less significant, but because I was insufficiently in touch with the most recent developments overseas to write of them in detail. The whole of the text was in proof and revised before the outbreak of the present war; therefore whenever ‘‘the War” is referred to it means the war of 1914-18.