Publisher's Synopsis
How do technological changes spread through our basic industries? In a time when US international competitiveness has lost its edge, this question ranks among the most important facing our economy. The author examines patterns of technological upgrading in one of the oldest industrial complexes, metalworking, and finds developments that contradict widespread beliefs. High-technology industries, for example, are not replacing the smokestack sector-the two are mutually reinforcing, not mutually exclusive.
