Book Review: Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation

• Published date: 01 June 1973
• Date: 01 June 1973
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7301800216
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS 395

Alfred D. Chandler,

Jr.

and Stephen Salsbury, Pierre 8. du

Pont

and the Making of the Modern Corporation, New

York:

Harper

&Row (1971), 719 pp. +xxii,

$15.40.

Professors Chandler and Salsbury have produced a splen-

did piece of business history. The authors focus on the first

quarter

of the present century and trace out the transforma-

tion of the du

Pont

Company from a middle sized family

owned explosives company to one of America's corporate

giants. By the early 1920's du Pont had not only diversified

into a broad spectrum of chemical products but had also

moved into the burgeoning automobile industry through the

acquisition of control of the General Motors Corporation. As

the title suggests, the authors view

Pierre

S. du

Pont

as the

architect of this transformation and while the other corporate

figures move through the pages it is

Pierre

and his innovative

genius

that

dominate the manuscript.

Viewed solely as traditional history, Chandler and Sals-

bury's history of du

Pont

represents a

major

contribution.

The

story

of Alfred du

Pont

and his

attempts

to gain control

of the corporation and of the negotiations between

Pierre

and

William

Durant

that

led to du Pont's General Motors take-

over make Wall

Street

and the du

Pont

boardroom come to

life. The reader feels almost as if he were an active partici-

pant

in the corporate battles.

It

is, however, as business his-

tory

that

the book should be judged and as business history

it

is superb.

What

is involved in transforming a small firm

into acorporate

giant!

That

is the central question and the

authors have provided an excellent analytical answer. While

the profits earned during World

War

I were necessary condi-

tions

for

much of the growth they were not sufficient. Trans-

formation could not have been effected had not the problems

of corporate structure, finance, and planning been solved.

It

is to the solution of these problems

that

the authors devote

the bulk of their attention, and the product of their research

should be made compulsory reading for anyone who wants

to understand the evolution of professional scientific man-