This book offers an in-depth exploration of the international phenomenon of enlightened paternalist capitalism and social engineering in the golden age of capitalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Erik de Gier shows how utopian socialist, religious, and craft-based ideas influenced the welfare work and educations programmes offered by paternalistic businesses in different ways from nation to nation, looking closely at sites like the Pullman community in Chicago and Port Sunlight in the UK. De Gier brings the book fully up to date with a brief comparison to contemporary welfare capitalism in our highly flexible working world.

Erik de Gier is emeritus professor of Business Administration at Radboud University Nijmegen.

1. Introduction2.Secular and purist origins of enlightened capitalism3. Victorian England. From Coketown to Port Sunlight, Bournville and the Garden City Movement4. 'The American Way'. Factory system, mass production, welfare capitalism and company towns in the USA5.Worker Colonies and Settlements: Joy in Work and Enlightened Entrepreneurs in Germany6. France. From the Mulhousian Welfare Work Model to the Taylorist Turn7.A Comparison of Welfare Work between Great Britain, the Usa, Germany and France8.Learning from Past ExperienceBibliographyNotes