Transnational comparison and concluding reflection

Abstract

In this chapter the balance of this study of Modernist industrial novels and the sociology of work is drawn by making a transnational comparison of the five countries under regard in the American Century: the United States, the Soviet Union, Weimar Germany, post-war Italy, and France. A common thread in the cross-comparison is the introduction of modern American production techniques (Taylorism and Fordism) and their consequences for workers, first in the United States and then subsequently in somewhat adapted ways in the other four countries. The chapter ends with a reflective conclusion with respect to the application or use of Modernist industrial novels as a research source in the context of the sociology of work.