-
Room: KSW G4.10
-
Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7073
Career History
Succeeded Leslie Hannah as Director of the Business History Unit in 1989. He was Dean of the School of Economic & Social Studies, University of East Anglia, 1986-8. He is Chairman of the Business Archives Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Academy of Social Sciences. He was appointed as an official historian by Tony Blair in 2001-5, and advised the House of Commons Transport Committee in 2003-4.
Research
His research embraces organisation, management and performance in the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular reference to state-owned enterprise, mergers and industrial concentration, and transport history. He has written widely on the railway and brewing industries. He is currently working with Dr Richard Coopey on the Unit's current ESRC Project, 'Enterprise and Creativity: The British Popular Music Industry 1950-75' [ref. RES-062-23-1100].
Current Project
Dr Gourvish has written the following papers:
-
'The British Popular Music Industry, 1950-75: archival challenges and solutions,' Business Archives, 99 (November 2009), 25-39
-
with Richard Coopey:
-
'Divided by a Common Sound': markets and connexions in the British and US popular music industries, 1950-75'
-
'Controlling Fashion: Enterprise and the Popular Music Business in Britain 1950-1980'
-
with Kevin Tennent:
'Peterson and Berger revisited: Changing market dominance in the British popular music industry, c.1950-80', forthcoming in Business History, 2010
He has also interviewed the following people:
-
Joe Boyd, independent producer
-
Paul Wallace, Sanctuary
-
Martin Mills, Beggars Banquet
-
Pete Waterman, PW Ltd
-
Geoff Travis, Rough Trade records
-
Kenny Lynch, singer
-
Jon Kutner, chart compiler
-
Eric Nicoli, EMI
-
Jonathan King, UK Records
-
Terri Anderson, Music Week, BPI, PRS
-
Alison Wenham, AIM
-
Jon Webster, Virgin, Music Managers Forum
-
Gail Colson, Charisma, Gailforce
-
Wayne Bickerton, Polydor
-
David Enthoven and Tim Clark, ie:music
-
Peter Jenner, Blackhill
Publications
Recent Publications
-
British Rail 1974-97: From Integration to Privatisation (Oxford UP, 2002, paperback, 2004)
-
Business and Politics in Europe 1900-1970 (Cambridge UP, 2003) [edited].
-
'What Can Business History Tell Us About Business Performance?, Competition and Change, 10:4 (December 2006), 375-92.
-
The Official History of Britain and the Channel Tunnel (Routledge, 2006)
-
Britain's Railways 1997-2005: Labour's Strategic Experiment (Oxford, 2008)
Earlier Publications
His publications include: Mark Huish and the London and North Western Railway. A Study of Management (Leicester UP, l972); Railways and the British Economy 1830-1914 (Macmillan, l980); British Railways 1948-73. A Business History (Cambridge UP, l986); Norfolk Beers from English Barley. A History of Steward & Patteson, 1793-1963 (UEA, l987); Later Victorian Britain,1867-1900 (Macmillan, l988, [Edited with A. O'Day], reprinted 1990, 1993); Britain Since 1945 (Macmillan, 1991, [Edited with A. O'Day], reprinted 1992, 1994, 1995); The British Brewing Industry 1830-1980 (Cambridge UP, 1994, [with R. G. Wilson] [winner of Wadsworth Prize in Business History]); Universal Banking in the Twentieth Century: Finance, Industry and the State in North and Central Europe (Edward Elgar, 1994 [edited with Alice Teichova and Agnes Pogány]); Management and Business in Britain and France: The Age of the Corporate Economy (Oxford University Press, 1995, [edited with Y. Cassis and F. Crouzet]); Railways - I (Scolar Press, 1996 [edited]; International Bibliography of Business History (Routledge, 1997) [edited with F. Goodall and S. Tolliday]); European Enterprise: Strategies of Adaptation and Renewal in the Twentieth Century (Trochalia Press, 1997 [edited with Margarita Dritsas]); Japanese Success? British Failure? Comparisons in Business Performance Since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1997, [edited with Etsuo Abe]); The Dynamics of the Brewing International Industry Since 1800 (Routledge, 1998 [edited with R.G. Wilson]); Missionaries and Managers: American Influences on European Management Education 1945-60 (Manchester UP, 1998 [edited with N. Tiratsoo]); European Yearbook of Business History, vols.I-III (Ashgate, 1998-2000 [edited with W. Feldenkirchen]);
Dr Gourvish serves on the editorial boards of Business History, and Enterprise and Society, and is a past Trustee of the American Business History Conference. He was a founder member of the Association of (UK) Business Historians and is a member of the European Business History Association. He serves on several advisory committees.