H. deB. Gibbins has written one of the best descriptive books on the economic changes surrounding the industrial revolution. ("Industry in England" London, Methuen, 1896.) See also his "Economic and Industrial Progress of the Century" (London, Chambers, 1903).
Supplement this by reading another old book, "Recent Economic Changes," by D.A. Wells. (New York, Appleton, 1898.)
More up to date, and in the same field, are "The Great Society," (Graham Wallas, New York, Macmillan, 1914, Chapter I); "Economic Consequences of the Peace," J.M. Keynes, (New York, Harcourt, 1920, Chapter II); "The Fruits of Victory," Norman Angell (Glasgow, Collins, 1921) Chapters I and II.
The economic chaos resulting from the war has been described with journalistic accuracy by Frank A. Vanderlip, American banker, in his "What Happened to Europe?" (New York, Macmillan, 1919) and in "What Next in Europe?" (New York, Harcourt, 1922). The European situation is dealt with in great detail by the "Manchester Guardian Commercial." Beginning with April 20, 1922, the "Commercial" has published a very complete series of articles under the general editorship of J.M. Keynes. The series is entitled "Reconstruction in Europe." "America and the Balance Sheet of Europe" (J.F. Bass and H.G. Moulton, New York, Ronald Press, 1921) is a study by two experts that goes into great detail with regard to budgets, public finances, exchange rates and the like. "Our Eleven Billion Dollars" (Robert Mountsier, New York, Seltzer, 1922) gives the same facts, brought up to date and popularized.
The science of economic organization is approached from three quite different positions. First, there are writers who discuss ways of making the economic mechanism efficient. ("Theory and Practice of Scientific Management," Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1917; "The Administration of Industrial Enterprises," Edward David Jones, New York, Longmans, 1920; "Principles of Scientific Management," F.W. Taylor, New York, Harpers, 1911.) In the second place, there are writers like Thorstein Veblen ("The Engineers and the Price System," New York, Huebsch, 1921, and "The Theory of Business Enterprise," New York, Scribners, 1904) and H.L. Gantt ("Organization for Work," New York, Harcourt, 1919) who desire to see vital changes made in the aims of the whole economic order. Third, there are reformers and radicals who write of a re-made or revolutionized economic order.
At the present time these radical writers fall into three general groups: (1) The Syndicalists of France, (2) the Guild Socialists of Britain, and (3) writers who describe actual economic experiments that are going on in Russia, and to a lesser degree elsewhere. (Note that the "One Big Union" movement of Canada and Australia and the "Industrial Workers of the World" movement in the United States have produced much controversial material but little constructive writing.)
French Syndicalism is well presented by E. Pataud and E. Pouget ("Syndicalism," Oxford, 1913); by Bertrand Russell ("Proposed Roads to Freedom," New York, Holt, 1919) and by Georges Sorel ("Reflections on Violence," New York, Huebsch, 1912).
The case for Guild Socialism is stated by A.R. Orage ("National Guilds," London, Bell, 1914), by G.R.S. Taylor ("The Guild State," Allen and Unwin, 1919), and by G.D. H. Cole ("Self-Government in Industry," London, Bell, 1918, "Chaos and Order in Industry," London, Methuen, 1920, and "Guild Socialism Re-stated," London, Parsons, 1920).
Actual experiments in the control of economic life by the producers are described by C.L. Goodrich ("The Frontier of Control," New York, Harcourt, 1920), who seeks to answer the question: How much control over industry do the rank and file of those who work in it and their organizations in fact exercise? "The Collectivist State in the Making," (Emil Davies, London, Bell, 1914) and "Socialism in Theory and Practice," (H.W. Laidler, New York, Macmillan, 1919), cover somewhat the same ground. The Whitley Committee, in its "Report of an Enquiry into Works Committees" (Great Britain, Labor Ministry) goes into detail on this point. The experiments in Russia are nowhere adequately covered, "The Soviets at Work" (Lenin) was a prediction and a hope rather than a review of achievements. More recent books have been either violently partisan or else so superficially descriptive that they conveyed no idea of the actual state of the economic experiment. It is, of course, in Russia, that the experiments in workers' control are being carried forward on the largest and most complete scale.
There are many other books in English, books in German, French and Russian, pamphlets, magazine articles by the thousands, and reports of special investigations in various technical fields, all of which offer ample opportunity for further study along the lines suggested in this book.