The fundamental and explosive changes in the U.S. economy and its business system from 1860 to 1920 continue to fascinate and engage historians, economists, and sociologists. While many disagreements persist about the motivations of the actors, most scholars roughly agree on the central shifts...

Thus most early American manufacturing firms existed as a partnership (formal or informal) between technically knowledgeable factory owners or managers on the one hand, and mercantile capitalists on the other. Sometimes (as in the rail and textile mills) these alliances developed when merchants,...