United States 1878-1911

Synopsis

As industrialism expanded in the United States following the Civil War, the essence of the labor movement was the struggle for control of the workplace between workers, who were holding fast to their craft skills, and management. One of the most famous figures to participate in this struggle was Frederick Winslow Taylor, who rose from his position as an apprentice sweeping out a foundry in Philadelphia to become the proponent of "scientific management," which combines ruthless industrial efficiency with social gospel, and instigated the genesis of the "science" of management itself.

Although Taylor is most popularly associated with "Taylorism," the practice of time-and-motion studies, this vulgar depiction fails to do justice to the enormous scope of his work, of which the efficiency studies were a small part. His intent was to revolutionize—his term...