Autonomous State provides the first detailed examination of the Canadian auto industry, the country's most important economic sector, in the post-war period. In this engrossing book, Dimitry Anastakis chronicles the industry's evolution from the 1973 OPEC embargo to the 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and looks at its effects on public policy, diplomacy, business enterprise, workers, consumers, and firms.
Using an immense array of archival sources, and interviews with some of the key actors in the events, Anastakis examines a fascinating array of topics in recent auto industry and Canadian business and economic history: the impact of new safety, emissions, and fuel economy regulations on the Canadian sector and consumers, the first Chrysler bailout of 1980, the curious life and death of the 1965 Canada-US auto pact, the 'invasion' of Japanese imports and transplant operations, and the end of aggressive auto policy-making with the coming of free trade.
More than just an examination of the auto industry, the book provides a rethinking of Canada's tumultuous post-OPEC political and economic evolution, helping to explain the current tribulations of the global auto sector and Canada's place within it.
By:
Dimitry Anastakis
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 27mm
Weight: 760g
ISBN: 9781442612976
ISBN 10: 1442612975
Pages: 568
Publication Date: 19 February 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Automotive Assembly and Major Parts Facilities in Canada Since 1945 Introduction: The Ripples of 1973 Chapter One: Industrial Revolutions: A New Automotive Landscape Emerges Chapter Two: The New Big Three: Canadian Safety, Emissions and Fuel Economy in a Continental Industry Chapter Three: Fair Share: The Battle Over “Domestic” Investment in North America Chapter Four: Nadir: Saving Chrysler and Debating State Intervention in the Auto Sector Chapter Five: Integration’s Bounty, Integration’s Bounds: The Unusual Life of the Auto Pact Chapter Six: Schism: The Canadian UAW and the End of Auto Worker Internationalism Chapter Seven: Transplant: “Foreign” Production, Imports and the Tumultuous Arrival of the Japanese Chapter Eight: Rebirth or Requiem? Duty Remissions, Free Trade and the Death of the Auto Pact Conclusion: One in Six: The Ratio of Survival Appendices Notes Bibliography Illustrations Credits Index
Dimitry Anastakis is the L.R. Wilson and R.J. Currie Chair in Canadian Business History in the Department of History and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Reviews for Autonomous State: The Struggle for a Canadian Car Industry from OPEC to Free Trade
'There is much to like about this work. It is a solid piece of academic research. It reaches beyond mere facts of how the industry evolved undermanaged trade...and how the Auto Pact paved the way for the 1989 Free Trade agreement.' -- Wayne Lewchuk
- Joint winner for Hagley Business History Prize 2014.
- Joint winner of Hagley Business History Prize 2014
- Joint winner of Hagley Prize in Business History awarded by The Business History Conference 2014 (United States)
- Short-listed for Canada Prize in the Humanities awarded by Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences 2014 (Canada)
- Winner of Best Book in Political History awarded by Canadian Historical Association 2014 (Canada)
