Stanley Chapman, Hosiery and Knitwear. Four Centuries of Small Scale Industry in Britain c.1589-2000 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, Autumn, 2002)

The book is a close study of success and failure in firms and industries revealing that much can be ascribed to the culture of the business, the historical traditions that govern the minds of entrepreneurs.In small-scale industry, some unarticaulted assumptions and prejudices can be traced back for several generations. This is a pioneer study of an industry of manay small family firms, which traces in rich detail, the tensions between internal aspirations (craftsmanship, lifestyle and traditional infrastructure) and external pressures (banks, wholesalers, chain store groups and merger movements). The story is taken down to the end of the twentieth century, the period that saw the final showdown between Marks and Spencer and the remaining British producers.