In accordance with recent debates about Varieties of Capitalism, this volume argue that research on capitalism should pay more attention to change over time. It also claims to put the firm into the centre of analysis.

Christian Marx is Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, Germany, where he is working on a collective biography of the top management of the German central bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) in the two post-war decades.

Morten Reitmayer is Researcher and Supernumerary Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Trier, Germany.

Preface Introduction: Rhenish capitalism and business history 1. The concept of social fields and the productive models: Two examples from the European automobile industry 2. Corporate law and corporate control in West Germany after 1945 3. Between national governance and the internationalisation of business. The case of four major West German producers of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and fibres, 1945-2000 4. Financing Rhenish capitalism: 'bank power' and the business of crisis management in the 1960s and 1970s 5. Supplier relations within the German automobile industry. The case of Daimler-Benz, 1950-1980 6. Confrontational coordination: The rearrangement of public relations in the automotive industry during the 1970s